Behind the Scenes
25 Important Books of Poetry of the 00s, by Brian Foley
[In continuing from my Important Books of the 00s list, which mostly intentionally swerved poetry in manner of context, the excellent and esteemable Brian Foley of Brave Men Press, Sir!, and many other objects has kindly and genuinely sent over his list of poetry-only 00s, which I am extremely stoked about. Enjoy! — BB]
At the beginning of this decade, I would not have thought I would have anything to say about poetry by its end. I was a bloated necktie who combed his hair. I was lonely. I had no dog to feed. Now there are too many dogs begging at my door, too much loneliness.
There is no universal to this list. The reality is mine, it is biographical. But I am happy to share it. I appreciate the opportunity to make this list, if for nothing else but to ruminate over what I have ruminated over. It was fun. If this list seems a little tipped toward the end of the decade, its because that’s when I began, what I consider, “reading seriously.” Though its arguable that its also when something had been passed between hands in the night and poetry once more became very interesting.
Michael Palmer – The Promise of Glass – (New Directions, 2001)
An ontological vision quest where the language that takes you there is a choking poison but a also a cure.
Zachary Schomburg – The Man Suit – (Black Ocean, 2007)
A book of transformations. If your mind is too open, this book will fill the void. It will transform you and you will soon be attempting to write like Z. You will fail. It won’t be pretty. Schomburg makes it all look easy, but there is no easy. Every transformation hurts. Even with the dad jokes, this book is addictive and necessary.
Elaine Equi – Ripple Effect: New and Seleted (Coffee House Press, 2007)
Urban alchemy steeped in wit to make it swallowable. Like the city, everything happens here, in intimate mindspace or unisex bathrooms.
Daniil Kharms (translated by Matvei Yankelevich) – Today I Wrote Nothing – (Overlook, 2007)
Black fairy tales told in a gasp. And still rejuvenatingly human even when the nose is missing, the eyes are missing, and the whole is transformed into the unrecognizable. You must laugh. Along with Eugene Ostashavesky’s OBERIU, essential enlightenment through confusion and violent nonsense.
Joseph Massey – Areas of Fog – (Shearsman Books, 2009)
Cut like bird calls, minimal lyrics tuned to landscape and sadness. A gratitude and good use of the day in a crisp clean line.
Frederick Seidel – Ooga Booga (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006)
Political, cruel, pervy poems from a wealthy libertine. And they rhyme. I would follow this man into total barbarism.
Dorothea Lasky – Awe – (Wave, 2007)
Never a more apt titled book. Anyone who has seen Dottie read knows her power. This book knows her voice. Here, it is elemental and optimistic and palpable. It will tell you about beauty the way you are afraid to hear it – directly, without artifice. These poems can take you out of the hole, if you want out.
Tomas Transtromer (translated by Robin Fulton) – The Great Enigma – (New Directions, 2003)
Transtromer often carries around the hammer of oblivion – that dark, dominant trademark of European poetry that we as Americans continually slobber over, the bleak existential angst dribbling down our chins. But more than this, there is life – seascapes, mornings, renewal. Likened to Ingmar Bergman in more ways than one. I call it formative. Light or Dark, wherever you win your hard on, Transtromer brings it.
Tony Tost – Complex Sleep – (University of Iowa, 2007)
A body of water – a book that you will never finish reading because there seems no end in which the eye can see.
James Tate – Return to the City of White Donkeys – (Ecco, 2004)
Where a master reinvents himself as indefinable fibber. For the rest of us, if you don’t read much poetry, this is the place to start. Almost 200 pages of hilariously dry mouthed story-poems, dazed and awake.
Joshua Beckman – Your Time Has Come – (Wave Books, 2004)
Notes, memos, idioms, all cobbled into short short poems packaged in a tiny, beautiful book. A record of a hot, sad summer, these are lines for every day – flippant, needless, transcendent.
Mathias Svalina – Destruction Myth – (CSU Press, 2009)
This book just came out, but Mathias is a lifer and is going to take us into the next decade, starting with these poems.
Landis Everson – When You Have A Rabbit – (Cy Gist Press, 2008)
In the 1940’s Landis Everson was part of the Berkeley Renaissance along with Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan. He stopped writing in 1960. In 2003 editor/poet Ben Mazer found him hidden in California, with no work in print. With Mazers’ encouragement Everson picked up the pen for the first time in 43 years. From 2003 to 2006, Everson would write 300 new poems before taking his own life.
We live for tales like this. But even more so, we live in the poems of Landis Everson.
Novica Tadic (Translated by Charles Simic) – Dark Things (BOA Editions, 2009)
Simic has done more for Slavic translation than most. Vasko Popa, Slavko Mihalic, Tomaz Salamun are his some of his masters. Here is his second summit climbed with Novica Tadic. Dark little poems that squirm across the floorboards.
Jesse Ball – March Book – (Grove Press, 2004)
There is no one like Jesse Ball, and if there was, they died 150 years ago in jail. Harsh and honed, these words hold you at knifepoint before cutting your throat.
Eileen Myles – Skies – (Black Sparrow Books, 2001)
EM softens her edges and looks up instead across the room. I mean, there’s a fucking beach ball on the cover. Regardless, like a deep blue twilight, the effect these lyrics sway toward continue to keep moving.
Jack Spicer – My Vocabulary Did This To Me (Wesleyan, 2008)
The most important collection of this decade. His poetry is now ensured to leave a smudged thumbprint on the ideas of all creators who read this book. Vulnerable and suspicious, Spicer was able to beat back the world that largely ignored him. Let us all now take a punch for his resurrected presence.
Rae Armantrout – Next Life – (Wesleyan, 2007)
You don’t need an army to turn a screw. If you equate economy with simplicity than you will die comfortable and farting. Armantrout is often anxiety and often brilliant.
Frank Stanford –You – (Lost Roads, 2008)
There is a tendency to read ambitiously according to girth, to choose Infinite Jest over other works because of what a larger page count promises. That is often the case with Frank Stanford. Whereas most would choose his 542 page epic, The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You, this small collection re-released in 2008 is just as ambitious, continuing Stanford’s zeal in evoking a world that leads the reader to believe they were born blindfolded. A dark and difficult pleasure.
Ben Lerner – Angle of Yaw – (Copper Canyon, 2006)
Intelligent enough to be eaten at least twice.
Zbigniew Herbert – The Collected Poems 1956-1998 – (Ecco, 2007)
Everything in humanity is here. Remarkable revisions of tragedy, even if you can’t speak or understand the language, you will understand the voice. Sometimes stoic, sometimes hilarious. Everything is here. Just look at the cover. One bad motherfucker who saw it all.
Graham Foust – Leave the Room to Itself – (Ahsahta Press, 2003)
A room obsession with an objectivist eye. Foust’s anger unravels into a readers unease. Even in such sparseness, it is not without its complexity, not without its value.
C.D. Wright – Steal Away: New and Selected – (Copper Canyon, 2002)
Her enthusiasms for experimentation in language, form , and content will become your own.
Ivan Blatny – The Drug of Art (Ugly Duckling Press, 2007)
Poems kept in a garbage can by an Czech exile. Another sad sack. Yet what a beginning! What great expectations. A reminder that art can break much of what it attempts to heal.
Dara Wier – Selected Poems – (Wave Books, 2009)
There is none more exuberant. None more giving. Much of this generations’ poets drinks from her well. Look around, in any corner. Its true. We are lucky it tastes so fresh. Open the book and start anywhere.
Other Considerations
Rauan Klassnik – Holy Land (Black Ocean)
Christian Hawkey – Citizen Of (Wave)
Matthew Harvey – Modern Life (Graywolf)
Jon Woodward – Rain (Wave)
A Little Anthology of Surrealist Poems – trans. by Paul Auster (Rain Taxi, reissue)
Tags: brian foley, poetry of the 00s
i like the existence of this list. a lot of things on here that i’m gonna have to check out now.
i like the existence of this list. a lot of things on here that i’m gonna have to check out now.
what a list. what a decade. i’d add some and squint at some already here, but this is a great list.
what a list. what a decade. i’d add some and squint at some already here, but this is a great list.
I read Complex Sleep but I don’t know if I read it.
I read Complex Sleep but I don’t know if I read it.
for stanford i’d say SINGING KNIVES, but i also haven’t finished YOU, so there’s that.
for stanford i’d say SINGING KNIVES, but i also haven’t finished YOU, so there’s that.
Great list. “A little White Line” by Ruefle deserves mention as well.
Great list. “A little White Line” by Ruefle deserves mention as well.
Didn’t Jack Gilbert put anything out during that stretch?
Didn’t Jack Gilbert put anything out during that stretch?
nothing as good as great fires
nothing as good as great fires
“A room obsession with an objectivist eye.” Yes. I was going to write a whole post about Graham Foust but now I can just remind those in NY to go see him read in the SUPERMACHINE series on Friday, w/, again yes, Joshua Beckman. As for the rest, 25 yeses. I am going to start a whole blog for each one. Brian Foley, YOU ARE un-un-universal, you are versal, you are vers, ve s–the Ruefle is A LITTLE WHITE SHADOW–you are yes, you are 25 Rs: RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
“A room obsession with an objectivist eye.” Yes. I was going to write a whole post about Graham Foust but now I can just remind those in NY to go see him read in the SUPERMACHINE series on Friday, w/, again yes, Joshua Beckman. As for the rest, 25 yeses. I am going to start a whole blog for each one. Brian Foley, YOU ARE un-un-universal, you are versal, you are vers, ve s–the Ruefle is A LITTLE WHITE SHADOW–you are yes, you are 25 Rs: RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
fact.
fact.
i’m glad this happened.
but what about Franz Wright’s Walking to Martha”s Vineyard?
i’m glad this happened.
but what about Franz Wright’s Walking to Martha”s Vineyard?
This is a really interesting list and now I have even more to add to my To Read list. The Elaine Equi book, the only one I’ve read, is so outstanding. Great choice.
This is a really interesting list and now I have even more to add to my To Read list. The Elaine Equi book, the only one I’ve read, is so outstanding. Great choice.
Nathaniel: thanks for the correction.
Nathaniel: thanks for the correction.
awesome list. thanks.
awesome list. thanks.
Just bought great fires. . . smashed my computer five poems in
Just bought great fires. . . smashed my computer five poems in
good choice
good choice
I think you mean ‘A Little White Shadow.’
I think you mean ‘A Little White Shadow.’
[…] welcome three new giants to the fold: Brian Foley (who made his guest-posted debut below, and more forthcoming); Alexis Orgera (author of Illuminatrix and all around rad woman); and […]
Very nice list. I’d add Kent Johnson’s “Homage to the Last Avant-Garde” (Shearsman, 2008) and everything by the mind-blowing Keston Sutherland, starting with the “Hot White Andy” chapbook (Barque Press, 2009).
Very nice list. I’d add Kent Johnson’s “Homage to the Last Avant-Garde” (Shearsman, 2008) and everything by the mind-blowing Keston Sutherland, starting with the “Hot White Andy” chapbook (Barque Press, 2009).
Sorry, I missed the correction above me somehow. Ruefle’s “The Most of It” also deserves consideration, I think, though whether that’s poetry or prose is up for debate. (Wave tags it as Poetry on the back cover; personally I have it tucked on my fiction bookcase.)
Related note: Ruefle’s selected poems, definitely one to salivate for in 2010; don’t sleep on the Wave 2010 paperback subscription, either: http://www.wavepoetry.com/catalog/82
Sorry, I missed the correction above me somehow. Ruefle’s “The Most of It” also deserves consideration, I think, though whether that’s poetry or prose is up for debate. (Wave tags it as Poetry on the back cover; personally I have it tucked on my fiction bookcase.)
Related note: Ruefle’s selected poems, definitely one to salivate for in 2010; don’t sleep on the Wave 2010 paperback subscription, either: http://www.wavepoetry.com/catalog/82
exciting list. christmas money.
exciting list. christmas money.
Right on with “Hot White Andy”, EC– that is an unbelievable poem.
Glad to see Z. Herbert on this list, you can’t go wrong with anything of his (though the John & Bogdana Carpenter translations are better than those by others, I think).
Right on with “Hot White Andy”, EC– that is an unbelievable poem.
Glad to see Z. Herbert on this list, you can’t go wrong with anything of his (though the John & Bogdana Carpenter translations are better than those by others, I think).
i mean, nailed it.
i mean, nailed it.
Good eye, good eye. I can only wish to mention a must: Brandon Downing’s The Shirt Weapon (Germ 2002)
Good eye, good eye. I can only wish to mention a must: Brandon Downing’s The Shirt Weapon (Germ 2002)
Very happy to see Foust. Would’ve like to have seen some Cal Bedient, particularly _The Violence of the Morning_.
Very happy to see Foust. Would’ve like to have seen some Cal Bedient, particularly _The Violence of the Morning_.
I’d chip in Pain Fantasy by Jason Bredle.
I’d chip in Pain Fantasy by Jason Bredle.
[…] HTMLGiant picks the most important poetry books of the 00’s. […]
I would have liked to have see Matthea Harvey.
Matthew Harvey is a dick (my fault. sorry for that that M and all).
Thanks for the comments.
I would have liked to have see Matthea Harvey.
Matthew Harvey is a dick (my fault. sorry for that that M and all).
Thanks for the comments.
I would have eased in Evie Shockley’s a half-red sea, claudia rankine’s don’t let me be lonely and cathy park-hong’s dance dance revolution, but definitely a dope list & much appreciated!
I would have eased in Evie Shockley’s a half-red sea, claudia rankine’s don’t let me be lonely and cathy park-hong’s dance dance revolution, but definitely a dope list & much appreciated!
Oh, Lord. What a just-got-out-of-graduate-school list.
Oh, Lord. What a just-got-out-of-graduate-school list.
i am new to poetry. (science background, never took anything past english 101 in college).
with that in mind, I am curious about Dean Young. From what I’ve seen written about him, people seem to be either very for or very against him.
anyway, would any of you consider him to be an important poet of the last 10 years?
i am new to poetry. (science background, never took anything past english 101 in college).
with that in mind, I am curious about Dean Young. From what I’ve seen written about him, people seem to be either very for or very against him.
anyway, would any of you consider him to be an important poet of the last 10 years?
[…] week in poetry: HTMLGIANT picks the 25 most important books of poetry of the 2000s; The Guardian considers the role of poetry in […]
Matthew Harvey ROCKS.
What a waste of time this list is.
Matthew Harvey ROCKS.
What a waste of time this list is.
can we have the Sockie P list of 25 books that mattered to him or her?
can we have the Sockie P list of 25 books that mattered to him or her?
Thanks for the list Brian, and the state of your loneliness, here are some I’d add, and the first two I’d say are two of the most important books of the century:
The Complete Poems of Cesar Vallejo, translated by Clayton Eshleman
The Book of Disquiet (& A Little Larger than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems) – Fernando Pessoa both translated by Richard Zenith
The Selected Poems of Larry Levis (we need a fucking Collected!)
Don’t Let Me Be Lonely – Claudia Rankine (for me, the defining book of the 2000s)
The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch (and the Collected Long Poems)
Lorine Niedecker: Collected Works
Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan
Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems 1965 – 2003 – Jean Valentine
The Unsubscriber – Bill Knott
Sleeping with the Dictionary – Harryette Mullen
Letters to Wendy’s – Joe Wenderoth
The Joyous Age – Christopher Nealon (another book that really defined the 2000s for me)
Everything Persevered Poems 1955 – 2005 – Landis Everson
Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems 1970-2005 – Alice Notley
Poem for the End of Time and Other Poems – Noelle Kocot
Rhode Island Notebook – Gabriel Gudding
Actual Air – David Berman (not sure if that was 2000s)
Case Sensitive – Kate Greenstreet
Poker – Tomaz Salamun
Rain – Jon Woodward and Holy Land– Land Rauan Klassnik (both on your other considerations list)
And some of my personal faves:
A Million in Prizes – Justin Marks
Make Loneliness – j. ruben appelman
Night Journey – Maria Negroni
The Stars of the Night Commute – Ana Bozicevic
I’d also love to see a Chapbooks of the Decade list since they tend to be some of my most memorable and personal reading experiences, but two off the top of my head (both from Kitchen Press) that shaped me as much as just about any full-length of the past decade are:
Thanks for Sending the Engine – Elisa Gabbert
Hit Wave – Jon Leon
Thanks for the list Brian, and the state of your loneliness, here are some I’d add, and the first two I’d say are two of the most important books of the century:
The Complete Poems of Cesar Vallejo, translated by Clayton Eshleman
The Book of Disquiet (& A Little Larger than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems) – Fernando Pessoa both translated by Richard Zenith
The Selected Poems of Larry Levis (we need a fucking Collected!)
Don’t Let Me Be Lonely – Claudia Rankine (for me, the defining book of the 2000s)
The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch (and the Collected Long Poems)
Lorine Niedecker: Collected Works
Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan
Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems 1965 – 2003 – Jean Valentine
The Unsubscriber – Bill Knott
Sleeping with the Dictionary – Harryette Mullen
Letters to Wendy’s – Joe Wenderoth
The Joyous Age – Christopher Nealon (another book that really defined the 2000s for me)
Everything Persevered Poems 1955 – 2005 – Landis Everson
Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems 1970-2005 – Alice Notley
Poem for the End of Time and Other Poems – Noelle Kocot
Rhode Island Notebook – Gabriel Gudding
Actual Air – David Berman (not sure if that was 2000s)
Case Sensitive – Kate Greenstreet
Poker – Tomaz Salamun
Rain – Jon Woodward and Holy Land– Land Rauan Klassnik (both on your other considerations list)
And some of my personal faves:
A Million in Prizes – Justin Marks
Make Loneliness – j. ruben appelman
Night Journey – Maria Negroni
The Stars of the Night Commute – Ana Bozicevic
I’d also love to see a Chapbooks of the Decade list since they tend to be some of my most memorable and personal reading experiences, but two off the top of my head (both from Kitchen Press) that shaped me as much as just about any full-length of the past decade are:
Thanks for Sending the Engine – Elisa Gabbert
Hit Wave – Jon Leon
Yes yes, let the hierarchy formation begin! Let us take a distributed era of breadth and collaboration and turn it into a stack! That’s a story everyone loves.
Yes yes, let the hierarchy formation begin! Let us take a distributed era of breadth and collaboration and turn it into a stack! That’s a story everyone loves.
Yeah, Sockie P. Come with it.
Yeah, Sockie P. Come with it.
[…] 25 Most Important Books of Poetry of the 00s (whatever “important” means)… hey, this is a pretty good list, especially if you retitle it “25 Most Important Books of Poetry by American Presses of the 00s”. I know more than half of the books here quite well, and will check the others out […]
Seriously? How many English-language speaking countries exist in your atlas of this world? Where is Robin Blaser, Robin Robertson, Judith Fitzgerald, Anne Carson, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Alice Oswald, Geoffrey Hill, Michael Symmons Roberts, Don Paterson, Seamus Heaney, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Erin Moure, Ted Hughes, George Szirtes, C. P. Cavafy, Nicole Brossard, Leonard Cohen, Daphne Marlatt…
SHAMEFUL, SHAMELESS, SHAME ON THE SAME OLD LAME OLD XENOPHOBIC US, EH?
Seriously? How many English-language speaking countries exist in your atlas of this world? Where is Robin Blaser, Robin Robertson, Judith Fitzgerald, Anne Carson, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Alice Oswald, Geoffrey Hill, Michael Symmons Roberts, Don Paterson, Seamus Heaney, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Erin Moure, Ted Hughes, George Szirtes, C. P. Cavafy, Nicole Brossard, Leonard Cohen, Daphne Marlatt…
SHAMEFUL, SHAMELESS, SHAME ON THE SAME OLD LAME OLD XENOPHOBIC US, EH?
Yes, yes: Letters to Wendy’s – Joe Wenderoth.
Also, Saltwater Empire — Raymond McDaniel
Also, Shattered Sonnets, Love Cards, And Other Off-And-Back Handed Importunities — Olena Davis
To be brief. And friendly. It’s frankly tiresome, how religious & gladiatorial everyone gets about their poetry preferences.
Yes, yes: Letters to Wendy’s – Joe Wenderoth.
Also, Saltwater Empire — Raymond McDaniel
Also, Shattered Sonnets, Love Cards, And Other Off-And-Back Handed Importunities — Olena Davis
To be brief. And friendly. It’s frankly tiresome, how religious & gladiatorial everyone gets about their poetry preferences.
Yeah, Great Fires is killer. Refusing Heaven is equally rockin’…
Surprised no Ed Pavlic is here…..
Yeah, Great Fires is killer. Refusing Heaven is equally rockin’…
Surprised no Ed Pavlic is here…..
Great list, I’m going to order a few of these.
I’d add ‘Crabwise to the Hounds’ by Jeramy Dodds. Read it, you’ll see.
http://www.chbooks.com/catalogue/crabwise_hounds
Great list, I’m going to order a few of these.
I’d add ‘Crabwise to the Hounds’ by Jeramy Dodds. Read it, you’ll see.
http://www.chbooks.com/catalogue/crabwise_hounds
This is the perfect list for me. I’ve been wondering where to start with contemporary poetry.
This is the perfect list for me. I’ve been wondering where to start with contemporary poetry.
.
Excellent list made very enticing. It’s good to see poetry being published by non-celebrities.
.
absurd thought –
God of the Universe says
outlaw critical writing
that challenges conventions
political correctness
absurd thought –
God of the Universe says
outlaw most poetry
register all writers
make them pay huge fees
.
.
Excellent list made very enticing. It’s good to see poetry being published by non-celebrities.
.
absurd thought –
God of the Universe says
outlaw critical writing
that challenges conventions
political correctness
absurd thought –
God of the Universe says
outlaw most poetry
register all writers
make them pay huge fees
.
Thanks for this list, I have a good feeling about it. I like the titles and the colors. Maybe some keystone words from one of your dapper recommendations will stop my embarrassing habit of ordering from the obituaries and lamenting the classifieds.
Thanks for this list, I have a good feeling about it. I like the titles and the colors. Maybe some keystone words from one of your dapper recommendations will stop my embarrassing habit of ordering from the obituaries and lamenting the classifieds.
alexis zzzzzippp just read this, he likes it
took him a while to “get into” dodds but after that it was excellent. the language grew and grew on him once he stopped asking it to do something, which sounds weird
zzzzippp doesn’t know if the poems just improved, have to reread a lot
alexis zzzzzippp just read this, he likes it
took him a while to “get into” dodds but after that it was excellent. the language grew and grew on him once he stopped asking it to do something, which sounds weird
zzzzippp doesn’t know if the poems just improved, have to reread a lot
thanks to Sampson S. for remembering my book—
one difference tween me and all those others listed above:
their books have to be bought, paid for with cash,
whereas all mine can be downloaded FREE from this webpage:
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=22392489
thanks to Sampson S. for remembering my book—
one difference tween me and all those others listed above:
their books have to be bought, paid for with cash,
whereas all mine can be downloaded FREE from this webpage:
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=22392489
How come porridge is not on this list? I have it for breakfast almost every morning!
How come porridge is not on this list? I have it for breakfast almost every morning!
E Kant have the best books ever written