Poets House Showcase

Once a year, for the past 18, Poets House displays each and every book of poetry published in the United States during that year. Who said print is dead? More than 2000 titles were shown this year, in 26 languages, from 649 presses. The heavyweights were included --- Robert Bly, Chris Abani, Heather McHugh --- but so were less famous folks, including Mel Weisburd, whose book is subtitled "A Short Memoir [in verse] of a 50-year Marriage." Offerings from Copper Canyon, Norton, and Graywolf sat cover-to-cover with those from O Books, Mad Crazy Crackup Press, and CreateSpace, a self-publishing tool from Amazon.

Founded in 1985, Poets House recently moved into a lovely, light-filled, rent-free-until-2069 space in Battery Park. Upstairs is a poetry library, filled with anthologies, chapbooks from past showcases, and other volumes slender and fat. Who said poetry is dead? On a sunny Saturday, several people had stopped in for a look, and plenty left with buttons that read "poetry advocate." Sure, in the next few years some or all of these books will likely be replaced by metal and plastic, by a thing that requires clicking, rather than turning. That's OK with us, because, clearly, the urge to create and to communicate is in no danger at all.

blanktexta ldajkflasdjfas