The Poet's Child: Edited by Michael Wiegers

Book Overview

When a parent is poet, the child becomes a muse--often wondrous, sometimes terrifying. This anthology explores the vast emotional landscape of parenting, from the serenity of innocent naps to the howling anguish of early deaths. Here are poetic mothers and fathers (and children), across cultures both ancient and modern, trying to make sense--and art--from the sublime mystery and relentless grind of living with children.

Never has there been a collection that so honestly speaks to the parents' perspective, where moments of tenderness--such as a father abandoning "the most divinely inspired poem" to feed his son--have their counterpoints:

--a nursing mother-poet, who has not slept in 400 nights, going "gradually mad" or --a mother's realization that her daughter would "drive nails into my tongue"

Remember those older friends we used to envy,
brilliant and glittering with beauty,
Who refused to have children,
not about to sacrifice their careers;
Who refused the mess, the entrapment,
as we toiled over chores and homework,
worried about measles and money--
Have you seen them lately?
They no longer converse in sparkling cadenzas.
They are obsessed with their little dog
who piddles on the Oriental rug,
who throws up on the bedspread...

They way they caress him makes you fairly ill;
the way they call him, "Baby."
from "Children" by Carolyn Kizer

Michael Wiegers is the managing editor at Copper Canyon Press. His most recent anthology is Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry (Copper Canyon, 2002), co-edited with Monica de la Torre.

Contributors Include:
John Balaban
Marvin Bell
Kay Boyle
Norman Dubie
Susan Griffin
Jim Harrison
Ho Xuan Huong
Rolf Jacobsen
Richard Jones
Carolyn Kizer
Thomas McGrath
W.S. Merwin
Alberto R os
Ann Stanford
Su Tung-p'o
T'ao Chien
C.D. Wright

The inaugural volume in the Copper Canyon Press Back to Books Series

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1556591756
• ISBN13: 9781556591754
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

"So how're the kids?"

This anthology, the first in a planned series of anthologies to explore common themes, is a look at the role of parenting and the intimacies of parent and child, as experienced by forty-two distinguished poets.The publisher notes that the poems, in a variety of ways, answer the oft heard question, "So how're the kids?" This they do and then some. This collection will break your heart, cause you to laugh out loud and bring back memories of anger, fear, despair, wonder, love, joy and a host of other recollections on the experience of parenthood that will linger in your thoughts long after you have finished the book.The poets come from an eclectic background as diverse as a Chinese village, the woods of the Pacific Northwest, Norway, Poland, a contemporary American city and discuss a wide array of parenthood related themes such as the father-child relationship; new parenthood; illness & loss; political issues; mother-child relationship; and breastfeeding. One of my favorite piems is by gregory Orr titled Father's Song that contains the following lines and present a feeling I suspect has been felt by many parents...and children: "I try to teach her caution, She tries to teach me risk."The poem by Anna Swir, Maternity, contains the following passage that exposes the diverse feelings of one contemplating parenthood and its mysteries: "You are not going to defeat me" I say. "I won't be an egg which you would crack in a hurry for the world, a footbridge that you would take on the way to your life. I will defend myself."This is a wonderful collection of poems dealing with parenting that will appeal to any reader that has ever contemplated the question "So how're the kids?"