Edited by Garrison Keillor
I learned about this new collection recently after posting a review of Good Poems for Hard Times, also edited by Garrison Keillor, so I put a hold on it at the library and was happy to see it arrive. It is now in my nightly before-bed poetry queue, where I read just a few poems before settling into my current novel. I didn’t realized until I dipped into it how poignant and frankly kind of sad it would be at this moment in time to read what are essentially love letters to America by all of its poets. It almost seems like a historical museum of a country that used to exist.
But, along with marching and protesting and letter writing and voting and being vigilant, keeping the flame of art and literature burning is another way to help us preserve and protect ourselves and our communities and our country. With that mentality, reading this poetry collection makes me feel stalwart, and that is a welcome feeling.