National Poetry Month always makes me happy.  So many poets...so few days in the month!  I'll mention just a couple of finds:

Aaron Shurin teaches at University of San Francisco and used to teach at San Francisco State, which is where we met in the mid-90s.  His sparkling eyes are a hint at his major intelligence.  He's written a number of collections of poetry since 1993 as well as two collections of essays.  His newest book, KING OF SHADOWS, is a small collection of essays about his coming of age as a poet and gay man in San Francisco in the 1970s under the influence of writers such as Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov.  It's a poetic evocation of a high pitched literary and political moment!

Susan D. Anderson, an Los Angeles poet, writes NOSTALGIA FOR A TRUMPET: poems of memory and history like a transcendent musical score, arcing over our lives and catching African Americans in every layer of American life.  Her writing evokes the sounds and narratives that make America what it is and leave the reader with feeling that one could just step into the pages of the past.  This collection was published ty Tia Chucha the press founded by poet Luis J. Rodriquez.

Dan Bellm, another San Francisco poet, has published several collections and his newest is PRACTICE.  It is elegant and eloquent, drawing from a rich well of spiritual and cultural history.  Using a contemporary definition of 'midrash' Bellm's poems draw their meaning from the Torah, reimagining stories and ideas.  He explores family, war, forgiveness and other issues that circle us all.

Then there's Elizabeth Alexander, who read at President Obama's historic inauguration.  That type of assignment---write a poem for an event---strikes terror into my heart but she did a lovely job.  Her other published works are a rich mine to explore.  Her earlier collection THE VENUS HOTTENTOT is still explosive and AMERICAN BLUE: Collected Poems will bind you to her forever.

Read on!