Gustaf Sobin | Collected Poems | Talisman | 2010
The poetry book of the year, for me. A gorgeous summation of Sobin’s lyric achievement. Should be on every American poet’s bookshelf.
Anne Carson | NOX | New Directions | 2010
Lisa Robertson | R’s Boat | California | 2010
Andrew Joron | The Sound Mirror | Flood | 2009
He really has the best ear of any poet I know writing in English. Trance Archive (City Lights, 2010) is also worth any reader’s time who isn’t already following Joron’s work.
Evelyn Reilly | Styrofoam | Roof | 2009
Sandy Florian | Prelude to Air from Water | Elixir | 2010
In my opinion, and for what little comparisons may be worth, Florian is the most original practioner of the Anglophone prose poem in our moment. Her other 2010 title is Of Wonderland & Waste, from Sidebrow.
Yang Lian, trans. Brian Holton | Riding Pisces | Shearsman | 2008
A major contemporary Chinese poet who has not yet found his American audience. He’s better served in Britain, where his other recent collections include Concentric Circles (2006) and Lee Valley Poems (2010).
Julie Carr | 100 Notes on Violence | Ahsahta | 2010
Keith Waldrop | Several Gravities | Siglio | 2009
The perfect companion to his ever-so-slightly-earlier volume Transcendental Studies, which won the National Book Award. The collages are wonderful, and the selection of his lyric work is judicious.
Jack Collom & Lyn Hejinian | Situations, Sings | Adventures in Poetry | 2008
Mahmoud Darwish, trans. Fady Joudah | If I Were Another | FSG | 2009
*
Also rereading pretty much all of Leslie Scalapino and Fanny Howe this summer—at least the lyric work—alongside some Alice Notley I’d missed hitherto. Waiting for some new/fresh time to read J. Michael Martinez’s Heredities, which looks fantastic, and the new translation of Raul Zurita’s Purgatorio from California.
More G.C. Waldrep here. Waldrep’s Attention Span for 2009, 2008, 2006, 2004. Back to directory.
Third Factory/Notes to Poetry 
Attention Span 2010 – G.C. Waldrep
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Gustaf Sobin | Collected Poems | Talisman | 2010
The poetry book of the year, for me. A gorgeous summation of Sobin’s lyric achievement. Should be on every American poet’s bookshelf.
Anne Carson | NOX | New Directions | 2010
Lisa Robertson | R’s Boat | California | 2010
Andrew Joron | The Sound Mirror | Flood | 2009
He really has the best ear of any poet I know writing in English. Trance Archive (City Lights, 2010) is also worth any reader’s time who isn’t already following Joron’s work.
Evelyn Reilly | Styrofoam | Roof | 2009
Sandy Florian | Prelude to Air from Water | Elixir | 2010
In my opinion, and for what little comparisons may be worth, Florian is the most original practioner of the Anglophone prose poem in our moment. Her other 2010 title is Of Wonderland & Waste, from Sidebrow.
Yang Lian, trans. Brian Holton | Riding Pisces | Shearsman | 2008
A major contemporary Chinese poet who has not yet found his American audience. He’s better served in Britain, where his other recent collections include Concentric Circles (2006) and Lee Valley Poems (2010).
Julie Carr | 100 Notes on Violence | Ahsahta | 2010
Keith Waldrop | Several Gravities | Siglio | 2009
The perfect companion to his ever-so-slightly-earlier volume Transcendental Studies, which won the National Book Award. The collages are wonderful, and the selection of his lyric work is judicious.
Jack Collom & Lyn Hejinian | Situations, Sings | Adventures in Poetry | 2008
Mahmoud Darwish, trans. Fady Joudah | If I Were Another | FSG | 2009
*
Also rereading pretty much all of Leslie Scalapino and Fanny Howe this summer—at least the lyric work—alongside some Alice Notley I’d missed hitherto. Waiting for some new/fresh time to read J. Michael Martinez’s Heredities, which looks fantastic, and the new translation of Raul Zurita’s Purgatorio from California.
More G.C. Waldrep here. Waldrep’s Attention Span for 2009, 2008, 2006, 2004. Back to directory.
Written by Steve Evans
September 16, 2010 at 8:27 am
Posted in Attention Span 2010, Commented List
Tagged with Andrew Joron, Anne Carson, Brian Holton, Evelyn Reilly, Fady Joudah, G.C. Waldrep, Gustaf Sobin, Jack Collom, Julie Carr, Keith Waldrop, Lisa Robertson, Lyn Hejinian, Mahmoud Darwish, Sandy Florian, Yang Lian