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Chosen by Garison Keillor for his readings on public radio's The Writer's Almanac, the 185 poems in this follow-up to his acclaimed anthology Good Poems are perfect for our troubled times. Here, readers will find solace in works that are bracing and courageous, organized into such resonant headings as "Such As It Is More or Less" and "Let It Spill." From William Shakespeare and Walt Whitman to R. S. Gwynn and Jennifer Michael Hecht, the voices gathered in this collection will be more than welcome to those who've been struck by bad news, who are burdened by stress, or who simply appreciate the power of good poetry.
Garrison Keillor, author of nearly a dozen books, is founder and host of the acclaimed radio show A Prairie Home Companion and the daily program The Writer's Almanac. He is also a regular contributor to Time magazine.
Author biography courtesy of Penguin Group (USA).
| Break of day | 3 | |
| Happiness | 4 | |
| This morning | 5 | |
| The monks of St. John's file in for prayer | 6 | |
| Job | 7 | |
| Or death and December | 8 | |
| Sonnet : "rarely, rarely comest thou, spirit of delight" | 9 | |
| The little horse is newlY | 10 | |
| A poem for Emily | 11 | |
| For a five-year-old | 12 | |
| For my daughter in reply to a question | 13 | |
| The goose | 14 | |
| Starting the Subaru at five below | 15 | |
| Day bath | 17 | |
| A dialogue of watching | 21 | |
| A birthday | 22 | |
| Thoughts in a garden | 23 | |
| Spring | 24 | |
| Unharvested | 26 | |
| The state of the economy | 27 | |
| At the arraignment | 28 | |
| from "Song of myself" | 30 | |
| Ice storm | 34 | |
| Passengers | 35 | |
| The summer-camp bus pulls away from the curb | 37 | |
| You can take it with you | 38 | |
| To David, about his education | 40 | |
| Invitation | 41 | |
| Calling him back from layoff | 43 | |
| Working in the rain | 45 | |
| My father's lunch | 46 | |
| The happiest day | 51 | |
| 'After dark vapours have oppressed our plains' | 53 | |
| Children's hospital, emergency room | 54 | |
| The longly-weds know | 56 | |
| In answer to your query | 58 | |
| Toast | 60 | |
| Detail waiting for a train | 61 | |
| September twelfth, 2001 | 62 | |
| The altar | 63 | |
| Sonnet no. 6 : dearest, I never knew such loving | 64 | |
| There comes the strangest moment | 65 | |
| Snowflake | 66 | |
| Somewhere I'll find you | 67 | |
| Feasting | 69 | |
| Song | 70 | |
| Yes | 71 | |
| The dalliance of the eagles | 72 | |
| After love | 73 | |
| Sonnet CVI : when in the chronicle of wasted time | 74 | |
| A spiral notebook | 77 | |
| What's in my journal | 78 | |
| Why I take good care of my Macintosh | 79 | |
| Ode to my 1977 Toyota | 81 | |
| Internal exile | 83 | |
| Burma-shave | 85 | |
| Carnation milk | 88 | |
| A brief lecture on door closers | 89 | |
| Sonnet XII : why are we by all creatures waited on? | 91 | |
| Angels | 92 | |
| Passing through a small town | 94 | |
| In Paris with you | 95 | |
| Wedding poem for Schele and Phil | 97 | |
| Seven deadly sins | 101 | |
| Teaching a child the art of confession | 102 | |
| A physics | 103 | |
| Things | 104 | |
| Any prince to any princess | 105 | |
| The courage that my mother had | 107 | |
| Please Mrs. Butler | 108 | |
| To a frustrated poet | 110 | |
| The lesson of the moth | 111 | |
| Disappointment | 113 | |
| The cure | 115 | |
| Upon hearing about the suicide of the daughter of friends | 116 | |
| The con job | 119 | |
| Fareweel to a' our Scottish fame | 121 | |
| Easter morning | 122 | |
| A million young workmen, 1915 | 124 | |
| The college colonel | 125 | |
| Ordinary life | 127 | |
| To fight aloud, is very brave | 129 | |
| Analysis of baseball | 130 | |
| Ode to American English | 132 | |
| High water mark | 134 | |
| After school on ordinary days | 135 | |
| Snow in the suburbs | 137 | |
| Now winter nights enlarge | 138 | |
| Happiness | 139 | |
| from Tender buttons | 142 | |
| Classic ballroom dances | 143 | |
| Theater | 144 | |
| Ode on the whole duty of parents | 145 | |
| The benefits of ignorance | 149 | |
| Bunthorne's song | 150 | |
| The rules of evidence | 152 | |
| Courtesy | 153 | |
| What the uneducated old woman told me | 155 | |
| Proverbs of hell | 157 | |
| To a daughter leaving home | 159 | |
| No longer a teenager | 160 | |
| Prayer | 162 | |
| Minnesota Thanksgiving | 163 | |
| Berryman | 164 | |
| Mother, in love at sixty | 166 | |
| My agent says | 167 | |
| Afraid so | 169 | |
| The yak | 171 | |
| High plains farming | 172 | |
| The fish | 174 | |
| The future | 177 | |
| Riveted | 179 | |
| All that time | 180 | |
| My husband discovers poetry | 182 | |
| The poet's occasional alternative | 184 | |
| The unsaid | 185 | |
| Snapshot of a lump | 186 | |
| Hymn to God, my God, in my sickness | 188 | |
| Last days | 190 | |
| Thelonious monk | 197 | |
| The discovery of sex | 199 | |
| The lawyer | 201 | |
| The prodigal son's brother | 202 | |
| Calling your father | 203 | |
| Al and Beth | 204 | |
| The meeting | 206 | |
| Nothing is lost | 208 | |
| The planet on the table | 209 | |
| It is raining on the house of Anne Frank | 210 | |
| The sunlight on the garden | 212 | |
| Too sweet | 213 | |
| For my sister, emigrating | 215 | |
| The three kings | 216 | |
| Not only the Eskimos | 217 | |
| Where go the boats | 220 | |
| The parade | 221 | |
| My cup | 223 | |
| Affirmation | 224 | |
| A singing voice | 225 | |
| Since you asked | 227 | |
| Inviting a friend to supper | 229 | |
| The love cook | 231 | |
| Soda crackers | 232 | |
| That silent evening | 234 | |
| This is how memory works | 236 | |
| "The purpose of time is to prevent everything from happening at once" | 238 | |
| Death mask | 241 | |
| That's the sum of it | 244 | |
| Suck it up | 245 | |
| The day the tree fell down | 247 | |
| White autumn | 248 | |
| Naked | 250 | |
| Slow children at play | 252 | |
| Driving to town late to mail a letter | 253 | |
| [My brother's in Wyoming ...] | 254 | |
| My brother | 255 | |
| Still life | 256 | |
| The changing light | 257 | |
| At the fishhouses | 259 | |
| A man in Maine | 262 | |
| The war in the air | 264 | |
| In the middle | 265 | |
| Are you tired of me, my darling? | 266 | |
| On a night of snow | 267 | |
| Closing in on the harvest | 268 | |
| Reconciliation | 270 | |
| Tie the strings to my life, my Lord | 271 | |
| The last waltz | 272 | |
| Rye whiskey | 273 | |
| Let old Nellie stay | 274 | |
| In praise of my bed | 275 | |
| Poem for the family | 276 | |
| In bed with a book | 277 | |
| My father gets up in the middle of the night to watch an old movie | 278 | |
| A prayer in the prospect of death | 279 | |
| Diner | 280 | |
| When death comes | 281 | |
| At my funeral | 283 | |
| The wish to be generous | 284 | |
| Last poem | 285 | |
| Just now | 289 | |
| Psalm 51 | 290 | |
| Dawn revisited | 292 | |
| Crossing the bar | 293 | |
| Morning swim | 294 |
Anonymous
Posted November 25, 2006
What a wonderful collection! I love listening to Keillor on the radio and I'm so appreciative of this book of poems he's put together. I've read work by some of these poets before, but most are new to me. What a great read (whether you're going through 'hard times' or not)!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted June 7, 2010
I have been having a lot of hard times. I find myself bewildered,sad and hopeless.
One day when I returned home from one of my doctor appointments I found this book with a letter on top. The note said " I found this book while I Was shopping. I think that if anybody needs this book, it is you." Tt was a gift from my sister.
I immediately fell in love with this book. It featured poems from some of my favorite Poets such as E E Cummings, Carl Sandburg, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Bishop, and many others. It also has poems from Donald Hall, Ray Carver, Noel Coward, Billy Collins, and many other of my favorite poets.
I loved this book because it is the homemade chicken soup we hope for after a snowball fight with our best friend or walking home when the snow is so deep it fills our boots. It is a mixture of great poems and the warmth of everyday living.
Garrison Keillor has an incrediable abilty to find poems which talk about the tragedy everyone has or will come to know. He also splashes us with the joy of life. Mostly, Keillor brings us to the beauty and loveliness of everyday.
'Good Poems for Hard Times isn't a book which holds your hand as you walk into each day of your life. These poems give us every moment that life gives to us.
This is a great read and a wonderful way of seeing how very blessed we all are.
By Amoment
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Great collection of superb poems spanning many eras. Some are funny, many are touching, and all are simply wonderful to read. Keillor really knows how to pick his poems.
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Overview
Chosen by Garison Keillor for his readings on public radio's The Writer's Almanac, the 185 poems in this follow-up to his acclaimed anthology Good Poems are perfect for our troubled times. Here, readers will find solace in works that are bracing and courageous, organized into such resonant headings as "Such As It Is More or Less" and "Let It Spill." From William Shakespeare and Walt Whitman to R. S. Gwynn and Jennifer Michael Hecht, the voices gathered in this collection will be more than welcome to those who've been struck by bad news, who are burdened by stress, or who simply appreciate the power of good poetry.