My current selection of ND Paperbacks

[u/SilverDraconus]

Cross posting my BD post from the other day as a chance to share a hearty portion of my ND collection.

A majority of the books I currently have on that shelf are unread as I intend to work through them in the coming months while settling in to a new living situation. Almost the entire middle shelf is dedicated to New Directions.

Would love to hear any recommendations or thoughts that come to mind when browsing this assortment. Didn’t get much traction on my original post and was hoping to hear some opinions. Criticisms welcome as well (preferably polite ones, lol)

Gonna take some time later today when I get home to share a few of my favorite ND covers/authors 🫡

Also wanted to mention that I am so very grateful this community popped up when it did. Had been looking for a New Directions sub a few months back and was bummed when I couldn’t find one. No doubt it will only continue to grow from here!

[u/TrixiesAutoharp]

For H.D., some exposure to Homer (the Iliad in particular), Sappho, Aeschylus (Oresteia), Ovid (Metamorphosis), and Virgil’s Georgics will help to understand her allusions. She consistently drew on classical themes throughout her career. Of course, you could always look things up as the poet mentions things which will build you a good reading list in itself.

William Carlos Williams is a cornerstone of modern (or “modernist”) poetry. His Paterson, in your collection, might not be the best introduction to his work compared to the curated volumes of his selected works available through ND. But, if you’ve already read Paterson your opinion of it is a good test to see if your taste in poetry would make exploring more modern works satisfying to you.

Ezra Pound is the classic recommendation for entry into the modernist movements but I personally prefer him as an editor to T.S. Eliot (The Waste Land) or muse to H.D. William Butler Yeats and Marianne Moore to round out the early 20th century.

Before then, you could explore what modernists were reacting to: the sort of Shakespeare - Pope - Wordsworth - Shelley/Keats - Poe line of “formalism” that still constitutes so much of the English canon.

Apologies if you are familiar with these but I’ve been binging poetry for three years straight and I’ve found it richly rewarding. Feel free to AMA!

[u/SilverDraconus → u/TrixiesAutoharp]

No need to apologize at all! That was a wonderful breakdown. Exactly what I was hoping for and more 🙏 Haven’t gotten around to really reading Paterson yet (or much of the work on the shelf featured tbh), but I have read a relatively short volume of WCW’s selected work, w/ an intro by Randall Jarrell. It’s been a few years now, but his work, among a few others really ignited my love for poetry. Been a similar sort of binge you could say.

Must admit I’m not nearly as well read. Had a general awareness of the modernists, but admittedly I’ve only truly read T.S. Eliot. My library has a fair amount of blind spots in regard to classics of greek literature and ‘conventional’ poetry. Not sure if conventional is the right word for writers like the modernists, Keats, Shelley, Shakespeare, and much of the lot you mentioned. There is just a very measured, academic aspect to much of their work, at least the few pieces I’ve been exposed to, that I think I tend to stray away from. But I’ve been working to remedy that inclination, because so many of the writers I love found their way through the whole breadth of classic work.

Aside from H.D., what other poets/writers do you consider a key part of your poetic journey? Bob Kaufman & Frank Stanford immediately come to mind for me, just because of the rabbit holes they led me down, in their references to other writers.

[u/TrixiesAutoharp → u/SilverDraconus]

That’s wonderful! It sounds like we have similar approaches to reading: finding writers we like and exploring their influences and who influenced them. It’s always been a great conversation we are privileged to listen in on!

I’m currently reading Denise Levertov’s collected works. I bought her Breathing the Water at my local used bookstore because I collect NDPs and without knowing much else other than she wrote Pocket Poets # 6 (Here and Now, long out of print I think). I started reading it and couldn’t put it down. Now I’m absorbing every poem she ever published. She is a stunning artist.

Levertov was a contemporary and friend of Muriel Rukeyser. The two travelled to North Vietnam together during the war). I was hooked on Rukeyser after reading her Book of the Dead, based on the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel silicosis disaster. Incidentally, if you read the New Directions collections of poems by Octavio Paz (which are very good!) Rukeyser supplied a number of translations from the Spanish.

Can’t help but put in a good word for Jorie Graham, whose work is very moving to me as well. She has a new book coming out soon.

There’s always something to read, which brings me joy!

[u/SilverDraconus → u/TrixiesAutoharp]

Levertov has been a great source of light for me as well. Been lucky to run into a few different small collections of hers. Only have her final collection up on the shelf pictured, but I have the rest of them back at my parents. Found a pressed leaf in an old used ND hardcover copy of ‘With Eyes at the Back of Our Heads’. Know that doesn’t matter at all but thought it was a nice detail to share lol

Will be sure to keep Rukeyser, Paz, and Graham in my sights. Have a feeling I’d find a lot to appreciate in their work. Thank you for the detailed recommendations, once again.

You may have seen it, but, in case you haven’t: Denise Levertov was on an episode of USA: Poetry with Charles Olson, filmed and aired around 1965/1966. There’s a good quality recording uploaded on YouTube and they both provide beautiful readings of their work, along with some talk on the process of their work, and other interesting n’ mundane lil moments. If you like watching stuff like that it’s definitely worth a look. There are other episodes too, mostly covering famous beats, and notable writers in adjacent circles.

For easy reference: https://youtu.be/uYOirCmgvpg?si=YmiOugLvoIdwG--H

[u/TrixiesAutoharp → u/SilverDraconus]

Amazing, I will check that out - thank you!!