From Publishers Weekly
Poetry is a regular feature on Garrison Keillor's NPR radio show A Prairie Home Companion, but for the last five years, it has formed the core of The Writer's Almanac, a daily, five-minute, 7 a.m. show on which Keillor reads a poem. Good Poems selects 350 pieces of verse from among the thousands that have been read on the Almanac for "Stickiness, memorability.... You hear it and a day later some of it is still there in the brainpan." Divided by subject-beginning with "O Lord," moving through "Day's Work," "Sons and Daughters" and through to "The End" and "The Resurrection"-the book includes work by writers past (Burns, Dickinson, Bishop, Williams, Shakespeare) and present: Robert Hass, Lisel Mueller, Tom Disch, among many others.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Keillor, host of the PBS radio show A Prairie Home Companion, has put together a collection of close to 300 poems he has read during yet another PBS broadcast, The Writer's Almanac. In an amusing introduction, he shares his thoughts on what makes a good poem. It's no big surprise that he purports to dislike literary works that, to him, smack of pretentiousness. A few selections openly poke fun at certain kinds of literature ("A Bookmark") or humorously defend humble things ("The Iceberg Theory"). Poems are arranged by 19 general themes, such as "Snow," "Failure," and "A Good Life." Authors range from well-known oldies like Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost to unknowns like C.K. Williams, who "played college basketball and lived for many years in Philadelphia." A delightful section at the end of the book offers biographical sketches of the featured authors. Keillor's choices lean heavily toward works that tell a good story or paint a tangible picture. Alongside poems with bucolic scenery are plenty of selections about everyday emotions and relationships. An outstanding feature of this collection is that the selections are all so accessible-even folks who say they don't like poetry can find something here to enjoy.Sheila Shoup, Fairfax County Public Library, VACopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Fifty poems, nineteen readers, and the definition of a Good Poem create an audiobook so good one is torn between generously lending it to friends and never taking it out of the car for fear of being stuck in traffic without it. This enjoyable collection offers hours of resonant voices and images. Gems include a vibrant and enthusiastic reading of Whitman's "Song of Myself" by Allen Ginsberg, and Roy Blount, Jr., rhapsodizing about onions in his succulent Georgia drawl. The reliable, endearing voice of Garrison Keillor transcends his Minnesotan persona to take on the voices of a range of poets, from Robert Burns to Marge Piercy. Brief interludes of piano music provide appropriate breaks for trying to decide which poem is your new favorite. R.F. 2003 Audie Award Finalist © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
*Starred Review* No false advertising here; just, as compiler Keillor says, good poems, written accessibly in common language by English-language writers, including a preponderance of twentieth-century hands but also Shakespeare and the bard who chanted the good old ballad "Sir Patrick Spens." Keillor originally chose them to read on his five-minute radio spot, The Writer's Almanac, and selected the poems for being memorable as well as recitable. It is astonishing how sound his judgment is. Poem after poem is as good as, and sometimes even better than, its predecessor. Keillor presents them in 19 topical sections, from "O Lord," made up of prayers sincere and satirical (one of the latter is Thomas Lux's book-opener, "Poem in Thanks," which concludes "Lord, thank you / for the goddamn birds singing"), to "The Resurrection," whose reverent contents are sometimes less Christian than the section title suggests (see "Here" by Grace Paley). That Keillor doesn't shy away from religious feeling is one virtue of the anthology, and his inclusion of vulgarity and earthiness is no vice, though occasionally it seems amazing that he spoke a particular poem in the staid medium of radio. Perhaps the one quality that obtains throughout is homeliness, not in the sense of ugliness but in that of domesticity; even the journeys pondered in the section called "Trips" are neither far away nor exotic. These are poems to live in comfort with all one's life. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM OUR EDITORS

If you think that you have developed an immunity to poetry, Good Poems will cure you of that sad illusion. Prairie Home Companion and Writer's Almanac host Garrison Keillor has selected scores of accessible poems that almost demand to be read aloud. Contributors include Billy Collins, Robert Bly, Sharon Olds, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Donald Hall, Howard Nemerov, and Charles Bukowski. Keillor's genial touch is everywhere apparent in these selections.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Every day people tune in to The Writer's Almanac on public radio and hear Garrison Keillor read them a poem. And here, for the first time, is an anthology of poems from the show, chosen by the narrator for their wit, their frankness, their passion, their "utter clarity in the face of everything else a person has to deal with at 7 a.m."" "The title Good Poems comes from common literary parlance. For writers, it's enough to refer to somebody having written a good poem. Somebody else can worry about greatness. Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese" is a good poem, and so is James Wright's "A Blessing." Regular people love those poems. People read them aloud at weddings, people send them by e-mail." Good Poems includes poems about lovers, children, failure, everyday life, death, and transcendance. It features the work of classic poets, such as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost, as well as the work of contemporary greats such as Howard Nemerov, Charles Bukowski, Donald Hall, Billy Collins, Robert Bly, and Sharon Olds. It's a book of poems for anybody who loves poetry whether they know it or not.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Poetry is a regular feature on Garrison Keillor's NPR radio show A Prairie Home Companion, but for the last five years, it has formed the core of The Writer's Almanac, a daily, five-minute, 7 a.m. show on which Keillor reads a poem. Good Poems selects 350 pieces of verse from among the thousands that have been read on the Almanac for "Stickiness, memorability.... You hear it and a day later some of it is still there in the brainpan." Divided by subject-beginning with "O Lord," moving through "Day's Work," "Sons and Daughters" and through to "The End" and "The Resurrection"-the book includes work by writers past (Burns, Dickinson, Bishop, Williams, Shakespeare) and present: Robert Hass, Lisel Mueller, Tom Disch, among many others. Keillor will do a four-city tour in support of the book, and of the paperback release of his Lake Wobegon Summer 1956.

Library Journal

The poems here grew out of Garrison Keillor's daily five-minute radio show, The Writer's Almanac. In his introduction, Keillor compares reading a poem on the radio to reading in a high school cafeteria, with radio itself as a backdrop to the listener's life. But, he says, there are some poems that make you stop and turn up the volume, and those are what he's collected here. It's a very eclectic selection, intertwining Shakespeare, Robert Burns, and Emily Dickinson with contemporary poets, many of whom might be unfamiliar even to avid poetry listeners. The poems are arranged by theme, with perfect segues from one to the next, no subject (including excrement) taboo. Contemporary poets who read their own works and those of others include Allen Ginsberg, Robert Bly, Donald Hall, and Sharon Olds. There's a small booklet included, listing title, writer, and reader; there's also an extremely useful list of acknowledgements, so listeners can seek out the books from which these poems were extracted. Make no mistake-Keillor's name, his reading of several poems, and his endorsement is a step up for poetry. With poet Dana Goia heading the National Endowment for the Arts and poet Edward Hirsch heading the Guggenheim Foundation, poetry is suddenly attracting attention, and this program should attract listeners anxious to understand more about the art form. It will not disappoint.-Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Keillor, host of the PBS radio show A Prairie Home Companion, has put together a collection of close to 300 poems he has read during yet another PBS broadcast, The Writer's Almanac. In an amusing introduction, he shares his thoughts on what makes a good poem. It's no big surprise that he purports to dislike literary works that, to him, smack of pretentiousness. A few selections openly poke fun at certain kinds of literature ("A Bookmark") or humorously defend humble things ("The Iceberg Theory"). Poems are arranged by 19 general themes, such as "Snow," "Failure," and "A Good Life." Authors range from well-known oldies like Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost to unknowns like C.K. Williams, who "played college basketball and lived for many years in Philadelphia." A delightful section at the end of the book offers biographical sketches of the featured authors. Keillor's choices lean heavily toward works that tell a good story or paint a tangible picture. Alongside poems with bucolic scenery are plenty of selections about everyday emotions and relationships. An outstanding feature of this collection is that the selections are all so accessible-even folks who say they don't like poetry can find something here to enjoy.-Sheila Shoup, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

AudioFile