An Invitation to Poetry

AN INVITATION TO POETRY: Robert Pinsky, ed.: W.W. Norton: Nonfiction:308 pages.

In the third poetry collection to come out of the Favorite Poem Project, poems are presented with introductions by Americans from across the country. Popular poets Frost, Shakespeare, and Dickinson are found with less well-known authors like Sone no Yoshitada.

On the accompanying DVD, poems are read and discussed by contributors to the book. Stanley Kunitz, the then 97-year-old poet, talks about his experience with Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, “God’s Grandeur.” In the next video segment, a 62-year-old bookkeeper praises Kunitz’s poem, “Hornworm: Autumn Lamentation.”

There are many noteworthy poems in the collection, but the most enjoyable parts of the book are the personal comments that introduce the poems. A sixteen-year-old student from California relates Langston Hughes’ “Minstrel Man” to her escape from genocide in Cambodia, and a 58-year-old man in D.C. explains how a Yusef Komunyakaa poem helps him understand his emotions as a Vietnam veteran. Each entry illustrates the way in which poetry expresses universal human emotions and invites readers to a further examination of poetry.

MBC