5-4-Fri: Poetry-related Stuff

Poetry is the goodness. This Friday, you are treated to five kinds of cool poetry-related content. Alors:

1 - The Poet Laureate. Best. Job. Ever. Annual honorific position with few responsibilities and TONS of street cred in nerdy English circles. My fave living poet is the current, but woefully unraimented, Laureate.

2 - Poet's House. My pal Alison gave me a membership here for my birthday one year and, even though it is far away in NYC, I have kept it up ever since. Congratulations to Lee Briccetti--a poet herself--for making this library cum movement such a success.

3 - Top 500 Poems. Wild Bill Harmon of "No I Won't Sanction Your Dopey Thesis Idea" fame edited this groovy compendium. Waaaay to go, Bill.

4 - Best American Poetry. Series editor David Lehman works with a new editor each year to provide a great guide to the best in American poems. An affordable way to keep up with the happenings.

5 - Norton Anthology. An oldie but a goodie. Impossibly thin vellum paper. Jillions of poems. Used to be two massive volumes. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Buy it/them (or dig them out of the old college boxes).

PS - Want to hear the "raiment" joke? Download the audio file of Kae Ryan's November 1, 2008 reading at the Library of Congress. Oh, and "Please Read the Letter" by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant is also the goodness; now playing on iTunes.