Best Poems of 2018

Brad Bennett …… haiku “rain clouds”

Natalie Diaz …… Other Small Thundering

Peter Duppenthaler …… haiku “falling leaves”

Paul Eluard …… The Evil

Bruce H. Feingold …… haiku “better than”

Tess Gallagher …… Crepes Flambeau

David Gershator …… haiku “after the break-in”

Angel Gonzalez …… I Look at My Hand

Jonathan Hayes …… Backyard

Jonathan Hayes …… “Watching the white cat watch …”

Christopher Herold …… haiku “trail dust”

Owen Hill …… from The Selected Poems of George Saunders: “every now and then …”

Sy Hoahwah …… Before We Are Eaten

Marc Elihu Hofstadter …… Rain

Joann Klontz …… haiku “dim light”

Rutger Kopland …… Bay

Rutger Kopland …… Time

Jessica Malone Latham …… haiku “loneliness”

Hart L’Ecuyer …… In the Absence of a Boyfriend

Layli Long Soldier …… Obligations 1

paul m. …… haiku “below the falls”

Pierre Martory …… Prose de Buttes-Chaumont

Cole Mitchell …… haiku “our parrot shrieks”

Henrik Nordbrandt …… Evening Sun

James Schuyler …… Thursday

Anis Shivani …… from Soraya: 30. “Akhenaton, uninvited wedding guest”

Norma Smith …… How the Light Changes

Norma Smith …… Lunch Date

Peter Tchoulhov …… haiku “drought”

James G. Tipton …… Jettisoned

Julia Vinograd …… Anniversary Party at People’s Park

Julia Vinograd …… Justice at the Courthouse

Julia Vinograd …… Old Blues

Paul O. Williams …… haiku “gone from the woods”

Paul O. Williams ……. haiku “whatever comes down”

Maw Shein Win …… Ruins of a Glittering Palace

** There are poems I don’t want to leave behind after I read them. All the poems in the list were poems I read and reread until I decided I had to have them available to read again. I hand copy each poem and add it to a loose leaf binder. 

The poems were found in anthologies, collections by individual poets, magazines and online. I know a few of the poets personally, and that always makes me happy. 

I read many poems that I like and admire that I do not copy out. These “best poems” are personal choices, poems that work on me. Every person doing a list like this would have a different list, even using the same sources. 

Early in a new year I read aloud, usually to myself, all the poems I have copied out in the previous year. Some years it takes a while. My voice this year was rough with a cold. But it feels good to put the words into the air. I love these poems! 

Thanks, poets!

Titles Read in 2018

January

Live from Golgotha by Gore Vidal

Equipment for Living: on poetry and pop music by Michael Robbins

Invincible Ultimate Collection, vol. 11 by Kirkman, Ottley, Walker

Not My Bag by Sina Grace

The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

Collected French Translations: John Ashbery edited by R. Wasserman & E. Richie

Tales from Moominvalley by Tove Jansson

Salt and Silver poetry chapbook by Larry Felson

Island Dreams photos & text by Margaretta K. Mitchell; Sim Warkov, poems

The Can Opener’s Daughter by Rob Davis

Madness by Sam Sax

Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, vol. 33 no. 1, 2016

How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less by Sarah Glidden

A Truce with Fantasy by Bill Mayer

The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander

Such a Lovely Little War: Saigon, 1961-63 by Marcellino Truong

German Poetry in Transition, 1945-1990 edited by Charlotte Melin

February

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

Prose Poems by Pierre Reverdy, translated by Ron Padgett

Look Out by Julia Vinograd

Fifty Freakin’ Years with the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers by Gilbert Shelton

Whatever You Do, Don’t Run: true tales of a Botswana safari guide by Peter Allison

Unpacking My Library: writers and their books edited by Leah Price

Walrus 2016, Mills College literary magazine [contains two of my poems]

Handle with Care by Julia Vinograd

Driving Through Cuba: rare encounters in the land of sugar cane and revolution by Carlo Gebler

Hello: poems by Richard Loranger

Last Girl Standing by Trina Robbins

Detours by Julia Vinograd

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Skull & Crosswords by Julia Vinograd

Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson

Slugfest: inside the epic 50-year battle between Marvel and DC by Reed Tucker

The Poems of A. O. Barnabooth by Valery Larbaud, translated by Ron Padgett and Bill Zavatsky

Reft and Light by Ernst Jandl

A New Moon haiku by Bruce H. Feingold

Sunrise on the Lodge haiku by Bruce H. Feingold

Dispatch from the Future by Leigh Stern

March

Old Enough by Bruce Feingold

Moominvalley in November by Tove Jansson

The Year We Studied Women by Bruce Snider

Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata

Walking Home by Lynn Schooler

The Moomins and the Great Flood by Tove Jansson

The Dumbbell Nebula by Steve Kowitt

Swinging on a Star by David Trinidad

Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner, tr. by W. Martin

Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

Sorted Books by Nina Katchadourian

Diario de Oaxaca: a sketchbook journal of two years in Mexico by Peter Kuper

Haiku: a concise anthology edited by Santosh Kumar

Soraya: sonnets by Anis Shivani

Letters to a Stranger by Thomas James

April

Against the Workshop by Anis Shivani

The Beauty by Jane Hirshfield

The Stuff of Thought: language as a window into human nature by Steven Pinker

This Art: poems about poetry edited by Michael Wiegers

Notes on a Past Life by David Trinidad

The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw by Bruce Barcott

Russian Roulette: the inside story of Putin’s war on America and the election of Donald Trump by Michael Isikoff and David Corn

The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov

Hell Strung and Crooked editors: Ice, Jane Omerod

X-Men: Grand Design, vol. 1 by Ed Piskor

The River of Consciousness by Oliver Sacks

On to the Next Dream by Paul Madonna

May

Snow Day Pierre Wazem, writer; Antoine Aubin, artist

The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald

The Wish Express by Ruth Plumly Thompson

Selected Poems (2011) by Jaan Kaplinksi

Blue Unicorn, bound collection of five issues: v. 39 no. 1 Oct 2015; v. 39 no. 2 & 3 Feb/June 2016; v. 40 no. 1 Oct 2016; v. 40 no. 2 Feb 2017; v. 40 no. 3 June 2017

A Mind of Its Own: how your brain distorts and deceives by Cordelia Fine

Are We There Yet? by David Levithan

Your Golden Sun Still Shines Denise Sullivan, editor

More Adventures of the Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald

David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 years of LGBT music by Darryl W. Bullock

Dear Prudence: new & selected poems by David Trinidad

Annabel [Hungry Tiger Press edition] by L. Frank Baum

June

Me and My Little Brain by John D. Fitzgerald

A $500 House in Detroit: rebuilding an abandoned home and an American city by Drew Philp

The Hangman’s Lament by Henrik Nordbrandt, tr. Thom Satterlee

Wings of Sunset by Ina Coolbrith

Memories of the Unknown by Rutger Kopland, tr. James Brockway

Antiworlds by Andrei Voznesensky, edited by Patricia Blake and Max Hayward; various translators

The red horse — and the blue by Katy Lederer

Wolf Centos by Simone Muench

Give Our Regards to the Atomsmashers! writers on comics edited by Steve Howe

The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs

The Heaven-Sent Leaf by Katy Lederer

The Great Brain at the Academy by John D. Fitzgerald

A World Beyond Myself by Rutger Kopland, tr. James Brockway

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: a new history of a lost world by Steve Brusatte

My Life, My Dream by Henrik Nordbrandt, tr. Robin Fulton

July

Winter Sex by Katy Lederer

When We Leave Each Other by Henrik Nordbrandt, tr. Patrick Phillips

The Great Brain Reforms by John D. Fitzgerald

Mr. Wolf’s Class by Aron Nels Steinke

The Hunter Thinks the Monkey Is Not Wise … The Monkey Is Wise, But He Has His Own Logic essays by Ulli Beier, edited by Wole Ogundele

Like Eating a Stone: surviving the past in Bosnia by Wojciech Tochman

A Journey Around My Room and A Nocturnal Expedition Around My Room (in one volune) by Xavier de Maistre, tr. Andrew Brown

Astro City: Victory by Kurt Busiek, B. Anderson, A. Ross

The Return of the Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald

Distant Center by Ha Jin

Yoruba Poetry: an anthology of traditional poems edited by Ulli Beier

Running with the Kenyas by Adharanand Finn

August

The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business, The Manitcore, World of Wonders by Robinson Davies

The Great Brain Does It Again by John D. Fitzgerald

Astro City: Private Lives by Busiek, Anderson, Ross

Where the Animals Go: tracking wildlife with technology by James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti

Captive Hearts of Oz vol. 1, 2, 3 [vol. 4 not yet available] story: Ryo Maruya; art: Mamenosuke Fujimara; tr. Angela Lin

The Great Brain Is Back by John D. Fitzgerald

The Story of Doctor Dolittle [Books of Wonder version] by Hugh Lofting

Who’s Yer Daddy?: gay writers celebrate their mentors & forerunners eds. Jim Elledge & David Groff

Joy Exhaustible: Assaracus Presents: The Publishers edited by Seth Pennington and Bryan Borland

Astro City, vol. 12: Lovers Quarrel by Busiek and Anderson

September

Almost All the Music & other poems by Angel Gonzalez, tr. E. A. Mares

The Language of Birds by Kim Sugioka

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

Collected Poems by James Schuyler

Nomandland: surviving America in the twenty-first century by Jessica Bruder

Blackberries; Things That Encouraged Me … ; and Snakes three mini comics by Maia Kobabe

Hair a chapbook essay by Anand Vedawala

Fanboy issue #1, comikake collective 

Sanskrit of the Body by W. B. Keckler

A Full Moon in Santa Cruz by Jonathan Hayes

The Sky Is a Page by Adam David Miller

Confetti-Ash: selected poems of Salvador Novo, tr. Anthony Seidman & David Shook

My Naked Brain by Leopoldo Maria Panero, tr. Arturo Mantecon

The Source by William Wantling

A Walk Among the Bogus by Owen Hill

My Brother’s Husband, vol. 2 by Gengoroh Tagame, tr. Anne Ishii

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Astro-City, vol. 13: Honor Guard by Kurt Busiek

October

Pantheon: the true story of the Egyptian deities by Hamish Steele

Corpses of Angels by Henry J. Morro

Good Gay Poems, 1967-2007 by James Mitchell

Bullets & Butterflies: queer spoken word poetry edited by Emanuel Xavier

Collage: an assemblage of divergent poetry juxtaposed by Jair, the Literary Masturbator

Memories I’ve Forgotten by Marc Elihu Hofstadter

Captive Hearts of Oz, vol. 4 by Ryo Maruya, story; Mamenosuke Fujimaru, art

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

The Best American Poetry 2006 guest editor: Billy Collins; series ed: David Lehman

Emperor of the Air: stories by Ethan Canin

Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris with David Javerbaum

November

A World Between Waves edited by Frank Stewart

Scattered at Sea by Amy Gerstler

We Have Lost Our Fathers by Nicholas Rinaldi

Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry, 1981 edited by Alan F. Pater

Where I Live by Donna M. Lane

Misery Islands by January Gill O’Neil

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting, intro by J. Griswold, afterword by G. D. Schmidt

December

Dead Lions by A. D. Winans

New Poets of Native Nations edited by Heid E. Erdrich

Underlife by January Gill O’Neil

Frogpond v. 40 : 2, Sp/Su 2017

Butterflight haiku anthology chapbook edited by Patricia J. Machmiller

Home Remedy by Norma Smith

Mariposa #6 Sp/Su 2002 Gallagher & Hall, editors

The World Until Yesterday: what can we learn from traditional societies? by Jard Diamond

Mariposa #10 Sp/Su 2004 Gallaher & Hall, eds

Beyond Words: what animals think and feel by Carl Safina

Mariposa #13 Aut/Win 2005 Ebba Story, editor

Velroy and the Madischie Mafia by Sy Hoahway

Mariposa #31 Aut/Win 2014 Cherie Hunter Day, editor

Mariposa #32 Sp/Su 2015 C. H. Day, ed

Invisible Gifts by Maw Shein Win

The Best American Poetry 2007 Heather McHugh, editor; David Lehman, series ed

Lighting a Candle a 4-poet haiku anthology chapbook edited by Michael Dylan Welch

Dear Animal by MK Chavez

Variously, not then by Travis Ortiz

Sparkle & Blink #90 Nov 6, 2017 Folk & Karp, eds

The Half-Finished Bridge a 4-poet haiku chapbook David Grayson, editor

“simultaneously real and fake”

In his autobiography actor Neil Patrick Harris describes his first role (be aware, the autobiography is written in the second person):

Your first-ever stage role comes in 1983, when thirteen-year-old Brian and his friends audition to be Munchkins in Tularosa High School’s production of The Wizard of Oz. You tag along, and when they see you they ask if you’re interested in playing the role of Toto, the dog.

“Bark!” you respond.

You love it. Love, love, love it. Everything about it. The makeup, for example: you love watching your transfiguration in the mirror … [T]he experience is simultaneously real and fake … It thrills your soul. It also engages your mind. … Why is it, for instance, that when you’re onstage as Toto you’re on all fours, but when you’re making your way down the yellow brick road, which winds its way through the rows of the audience, you’re on your “hind legs”? The director feels there’s no other practical choice, so it’s okay. You don’t. You consider it a gross inconsistency that besmirches the meticulous realism of the rest of the high school production of The Wizard of Oz.

source: Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography
by Neil Patrick Harris, with David Javerbaum
Crown Archetype / Random House, NY

Thoughts on “A Question of Degree” by Bill Mayer

A Question of Degree


In Oz no one dies,
which makes for complications
in the stories, all 32
of which I have just reread.
Baum seems not to have been
quite clear; after all, Dorothy’s house
kills the Witch of the East
as the bucket of water later
melts the Witch of the West.
There are endless contradictions
because, finally,
it is impossible to imagine
immortality, no matter
that we all want it,
and some believe it
and the ego denies it.
A flash of light
between two eternities
some say, but that flash
is always going somewhere,
not like a match which goes out.
In Oz, you can stay as young or old
as you wish, be a baby
forever, or a wise old man
or woman. Which would
you choose? Through which door
would you wish to pass?


Bill Mayer

#


Ooh. A poet writing about Oz! I like it. I’ve tried. An old Ozzy, I’ve tried. Bill Mayer deploys a light touch on the details, assumes any reader knows about Oz, he needn’t load up the poem with exposition. You know who Dorothy is, you know about the witches. Mayer doesn’t bother to bring up Tin Woodman or Scarecrow or Cowardly Lion. Considering that he’d just finished reading almost three dozen books Mayer’s restraint is amazing. I mean, by that time my head is all a-clutter.

For the sake of the poem the poet hones it down to one topic: immortality, something Oz people are blessed with. Except when, somehow, they die. As Mayer says, “There are endless contradictions” in Baum’s rules for Oz. I remember well! Even the rules for magical implements change. In one book the Magic Belt is easily operated; you just point and say Shoot! and your finger goes BANG! In another book you have to go through some rigamarole every time you want the Magic Belt to grant a wish. Why? No explanation, really.

Considering the weighty nature of immortality, Bill Mayer gets in and gets out rather neatly. Too neatly? Could it be otherwise?

“In Oz, you can stay as young or old / as you wish, be a baby / forever, or a wise old man / or woman,” Bill Mayer says. That’s pretty much quoting L. Frank Baum. “Which would / you choose?”

Who would want to remain an infant for eternity? Especially if one never attains control of one’s bowels or achieves the coordination necessary to speak or walk. If you did, would you still be a baby? Wise is nice, but old means physical decline. Age doesn’t necessarily bring wisdom. On the other hand experience is a good teacher and If you were immortal (albeit in a seemingly young body) wouldn’t you accrue the experience wisdom requires?

I have to say I am a little confused by Bill Mayer’s own ideas about immorality. “[I]t is impossible to imagine / immortality, no matter / that we all want it, / and some believe it / and the ego denies it,” Bill Mayer says. I don’t know about that. For the ego isn’t it death that is “impossible to imagine”? Can the ego truly imagine its utter annihilation? The ego is presented with plenty of real world examples of death, it’s true, whereas there is no real world example of an immortal. Still, the ego balks at death and will cling to belief in a life beyond it.

Life is a light, Mayer tells us, but not a light like a match flame. “[A] match … goes out,” Mayer says, whereas the light of a human life “is always going somewhere.” Oh? Where is it the light of a human life is headed? Mayer doesn’t tell us. Not that he makes any explicitly religious argument. He refers to no creed. No mention of Heaven, no Judgment.

Still, I like “that flash” that “some say” lights up the gap “between two eternities.” As Mayer himself notes, it’s not an original thought. But there’s magic to it.

L. Frank Baum would say in the Oz books that fairyland isn’t the only place that has magic in it. As a kid I got impatient with his occasional awe over the natural world. But these days I find life itself pretty darn amazing and the inventions of fantasy fiction too often banal.
Each time I read Bill Mayer’s poem it touches me, as an old Ozzy, but as a mortal too.

I’ve saved the most esoteric bit for last:

Bill Mayer mentions 32 Oz stories. Where’d that number come from? L. Frank Baum wrote 13 full length sequels to The Wizard of Oz (plus a collection of short stories). After Baum’s death his publisher contracted with Ruth Plumly Thompson to write a new Oz book every year. Thompson kept up that schedule for 19 years. Other writers published Oz books with Reilly & Lee after Thompson, including John R. Neill, the man who’d provided the illustrations for all the Oz stories up to then (bar Wizard). The last book in the Reilly & Lee series was number forty. If we take the 14 of Baum and the 19 of Thompson (and ignore subsequent authors), we get 33. Bill Mayer, however, does not mention Thompson. Odd. Maybe the 32 Oz books were the ones he owned as a kid, still had, and was able to reread? That was his Oz.

source: A Truce with Fantasy by Bill Mayer
2015. Kelsay Books / Aldrich Press

In Kenya or in Oz?

Adharanand Finn is a Scottish journalist and runner. He goes to Kenya to learn from some of the greatest runners in the world. Who knew he would find himself mentally in the land of Oz?

I head out past the edge of town and into the countryside. Mist hangs blue in the dips, thick and magical. Pointy-roofed huts and neatly sown fields rise up here and there, the red track stretching out before me. I run on, like Dorothy, through a strange, Technicolor world. And who is that I see now, running toward me, his bright yellow jacket glowing in the first rays of sunlight? The scarecrow? It’s Japhet, grinning to see me. He turns and runs beside me, back the way he came.

We run together, easy, passing bigger groups, people running hard, the sweat beading on their anxious foreheads, pushing themselves on in search of the elusive Oz, sure that someday, if they just keep running, they will get there.

[This post is dedicated to the friends attending the Oz Convention next weekend.]

source: Running with the Kenyans: passion, adventures, and the secret of the fastest people on Earth by Adharanand Finn
2012. Ballantine Books, New York