a good list of reads for the new year...

Blue Pastures, Mary Oliver (Harcourt Brace, 1995)

A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry, Czeslaw Milosz, ed. (Harcourt Brace, 1996)

Her Words: Diverse Voices in Contemporary Appalachian Women's Poetry, Felicia Mitchell, ed. ( Univ. of Tenn. Press, 2002)

Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry, Jane Hirshfield (Harper Perennial, 1997)

Open House: Writers Redefine Home, Mark Doty, ed. (Graywolf Press, 2003)

Poet's Choice: Poems for Everyday Life, Robert Hass, ed. (Ecco Press, 1998)

After reading these six books – as if they are the very force of will – you'll come back to them many times. They are fuel, and will, if you allow, open pages to your own writing that you possibly never imagined.