Poems for the Millenium. - book reviews

Millennial fervor makes a fetish of ordinary transpiration. Passage is time plowing under into dark ground ("the past"), with the future ("every moment") fading in and out of view. But there has never been a better time for these excellent anthologies to make the scene. And they complement each other.

I like each book for different reasons: American Poets Say Goodbye to the 20th Century is a supercharged parlor game of America's best makers (more than 100). These poets speak to the bewildered, beautiful, fucked-up, horrifying, hopeful carcass of the 20th century, a celebrity roast of the age. Poems for the Millennium is a brilliant kaleido scope writing unstuck in time, both in English and in fine translation, from numerous archaic/modern/postmodern voices. It playfully and honestly rearticulates what we've known of poetics in this century. Both books are essential.

COPYRIGHT 1997 Point Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group