Nice anthology. ( )

An anthology of 185 poems selected by Garrison Keillor, chosen as poems he might send to a friend whose life had taken a bad turn. Not poems of suffering, but poems that are bracing. An eclectic assortment, from Shakespeare to Whitman to Burma Shave verses.

This is a good collection of poetry, with a worthwhile introduction in Keillor's typical sensitive, pragmatic, and humorous midwestern fatherly way.

Years ago, while studying critical theory in grad school, I read Dana Gioia's Can Poetry Matter?. Keillor answers this question 20 years later: "...what really matters about poetry and what distinguishes poets from, say, fashion models or ad salesmen is the miracle of incantation in rendering the gravity and grace and beauty of the ordinary world and thereby lending courage to strangers" (Kindle location 189). Speaking about his childhood, Keillor says about his father, "when he took a chicken by the legs and laid its neck against the block and lifted the ax and chopped off its head, there was a plain cadence to that. I hear that whack in poetry...poetry is about driving the nail into the pine, killing the chicken, mowing grass, putting luggage into the car, gratitude for food, the laughter of a little girl, about our common life" (Kindle 225-241). Keillor offers numerous other thoughts and aphorisms about poetry that make the introductory essay alone worthwhile for anyone with the same questions about poetry's utility that I had years ago.

As inspiring and necessary and salt-of-the-earth as Keillor claims poetry to be, the fact that it is consumed more in anthologies than chapbooks testifies to its difficulty, its arrogance, its richness. Good poetry, like good chocolate, is best consumed in small doses, and Good Poems for Hard Times serves it up well. ( )

Keillor's first anthology of contemporary poetry, and the present one, are my two favourite modern anthologies of poetry. I think he's agree with Billy Collins that : "I see woefully obscure poetry as simply a kind of verbal rudeness'. The publication of this book makes the world a better place. ( )

I feel terrible for admitting this, but I bought this book for a friend's going away party and never gave it to him because I enjoyed it so much! If you're a fan of NPR's "Prairie Home Companion," you'll enjoy this book. ( )

I feel terrible for admitting this, but I bought this book for a friend's going away party and never gave it to him because I enjoyed it so much! If you're a fan of NPR's "Prairie Home Companion," you'll enjoy this book. ( )

Loved the first collection, Good Poems. Garrison Keillor has such good taste in his selection of poems from his show/blog. I read a poem a day, food for thought and usually for tranquillity at the end of the day.
Took me a while to finish - one poem at a time, but as usual, I knew they would be good slow food for thought poems. ( )

I suppose it serves a purpose.

Garrison Keillor has put together a beautiful assortment of poetry here. If you are new to poetry it would be a great place to begin. I discovered a couple of new poets that I've come to love. (and devoured their writing) ( )

Garrison Keillor has put together a beautiful assortment of poetry here. If you are new to poetry it would be a great place to begin. I discovered a couple of new poets that I've come to love. (and devoured their writing) ( )

I am not, nor have I ever been, exceptionally qualified to write a review of a collection of poetry. Back in the day, I could probably have muddled out something about rhyme and meter, but high school English is a long way behind me, and I've forgotten anything I ever knew.

But I do like poetry that's pretty straightforward and that says something to me. I have a collection of these that I've probably kept since middle school. Unfortunately, for the number of poems included in the collection, there weren't many that spoke to my personal experience. Maybe I read them too fast. I'm a fast reader and poetry is meant to be savored. I tried to take my time, but I think I came in at about a month. I tried to keep it to one or two a day, but I just got tired of lugging the thing back and forth to work and finished reading it.

Also, I'm not clear about what made these "Good Poems for Hard Times." I expected an uplifting collection, or maybe a "You are not alone" kind of collection, but really they seemed to be about anything and everything. Flipping it open randomly, I find a poem that reminds me of James Blunt's Song, "You're Beautiful," about instantaneous, hopeless, distant love; a poem about watching a man be unsuccessfully resuscitated; a silly little rhyme about a yak; and I remember reading some of those funny little Burma Shave ads. Why are those good for hard times? Some fit the theme, but, for me, anyway, most of them didn't.

Readers who know more about poetry or who have a broader understanding and expectation may enjoy these. This just wasn't the collection for me. ( )

I love Garrison Keillor and look forward to his daily show TYhe Writers Almanac. These poems come from the show and are a great collection of easily readable poems. A broad range of new poets and some classics mixed in as well. One of the best collections I ever read. I beleive this book would appeal to any poetry lover and maybe a few others. I read a few poems each day and I was sad when I got to the end. Hopefully there will be another volume coming out someday but you won't be dissapointed with this one. ( )

I was thrilled to receive this book from a member giveaway and pleasantly surprised at the variety of poetry it contained! Such a great mix of humor (Soda Crackers pg 232; Carnation Milk pg 88) and more thought provoking (For My Daughter in Reply To a Question pg13)! I love randomness and this book is full to the brim with random :) ( )

This will probably remain in a "currently reading" status. I love poetry. Some of the poems are light, candy to read. Some are humorous, then some are very moving. Overall a very pleasant collection. ( )

A collection of poems that Keillor has used on his daily "Writer's Almanac." Poems for every mood. ( )

I invited the other two of the Three Amigos, Bruce Barth and Bob Rudolph, to go to Garrison Keillor's book-signing at the Sheldon Theater with me. We stopped off at a great used bookstore in the city to pick up a few of his books, went to a good restaurant nearby, then motored down Grand to the Sheldon for an evening of healing laughter. Great night. And Garrison Keillor, as always, was folksy and charming, funny and self-deprecating. And I like this collection of poems more than his earlier edition of poems, "Good Poems". There were more that moved me here. Some particularly strong poems were on pg. 11 ("A Poem For Emily" by Miller Williams, about the progression of a grandfather's love for his grandaughter), pg. 26 ("Unharvested" by Robert Frost, a favorite), pg. 51 ("The Happiest Day" by Linda Pastan), pg. 56 ("The Longly-Weds Know" by Leah Furnas), pg. 62 ("September Twelfth, 2001" by X.J. Kennedy), the Burma-Shave poems on pg. 85, pg. 107 ("The Courage That My Mother Had" by Edna St. Vincent Millay, another fave), pg. 111 ("the lesson of the moth" by Don Marquis), pg. 159 ("To a Daughter Leaving Home" by Linda Pastan - and I just realized this is the second poem of hers I've listed here; I'll have to check her out), pg. 160 ("No Longer a Teenager" by Gerald Locklin), pg. 190 ("Last Days", a heartbreaker by Donald Hall), pg. 199 ("The Discovery of Sex" by Debra Spencer), pg. 241 ("Death Mask" by Edward Field), and pg. 265 ("In the Middle" by Barbara Crooker). A fine collection of poems, and a night of good fellowship and cheer from a master in the company of my friends. What could be better? ( )

Not as good as the first volume. The poems are even more nicey-nice. Okay poems that go down well with a glass of milk.

The beauty of this collection is that it is immediately readable but isn't so light that it doesn't bear re-reading. Beyond that, the selection of poets is strong and has lead me to more and more poets who are new to me(David Shumate, David Ignatow, and Debra Spencer) and it has sent me back to poets I already knew.

Finally, it's a good collection for readers who don't usually read poetry. The organization lends itself to just reading and that is a quality all too lacking in most anthologies of poetry. ( )