Poems to Live by in Uncertain Times

by Joan Murray

Book Overview

The week after the attack on the World Trade Center, Joan Murray read her poem about it, "Survivors--Found," on National Public Radio.

Thousands heard her poem and were so moved that they contacted her to ask for copies. In the wake of our nation's tragedy, poetry has taken on a new relevance in people's lives. As Dinitia Smith noted in The New York Times, "In the weeks since the terrorist attacks, people have been consoling themselves-and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807068691
• ISBN13: 9780807068694
• Release Date: November 2001
• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.1" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful poetry collection and a great gift book

Poems to Live By is not a feel-good or sappy book, and it doesn't aim to solve your problems with a few rhyming phrases. Instead, this book is an accompaniment to difficult times, be it "Death and Rememberance," "Fear and Suffering," "Affirmations and Rejoicings," "Warning and Instructions," "War and Rumors of War," or "Meditations and Conversations." This is a handy reference book for anyone who looks to provide solace to others through poetry. Murray's book become famous after 9/11/2001. She published the collection after overwhelming response to her poem "Survivors-Found," which she read on National Public Radio the week after the terrorist attacks. This book is timeless, however, and will provide comfort and inspiration for generations to come. Murray has collected international and award-winning voices to create a nourishing spiritual guide.

Amazing!!

This is a great book, with brilliant choices. Some of these poems feel like exactly what I needed to read right now and I bought copies for lots of friends, too. Joan Murray has a great ear -- her picks are superb: I love the Billy Collins, the Stephen Spender, the Jane Kenyon, John Berryman, Muriel Rukeyser -- The book also introduced me to Jennifer Michael Hecht's poetry. I bought her book, The Next Ancient World and all I can say is, BUY IT -- she will rock your world and if it is already rocking -- well get this book and Hecht's book...and see what happens.

a collection for all times of life

When I saw this book at the bookstore, my first thought was Oh no, is this a book reacting to the events of September 11th? I picked it up and sure enough, it was published after September 11, but after reading the introduction I decided to buy the book. The editor has always loved poetry and for years has saved poems that were important to her in a binder labeled "Poems to Live By." She includes, at the end of the introduction, a poem she wrote a few days after the attack on the World Trade Center. She says "It was clearly an occasional poem, admittedly not a great poem." Besides this poem, there is only one other that might have been written in recent months, and this is "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" by Adam Zagajewski, which appeared in the New Yorker's first issue after September 11, and which alone is worth buying this book for. These are not feel-good poems that give easy comfort. Instead, you will find here companionship in another person's way of seeing the mixture of suffering and happiness that is always around us. The book is nicely divided into sections, each title giving a hint of how the poems in that section look at uncertainty: Death and Remembrance, Fear and Suffering, Affirmations and Rejoicings, Warnings and Instructions, War and Rumors of War, and Meditations and Conversations. Mostly these are 20th century poets, many of them contemporary poets writing today (such as Billy Collins, Sharon Olds, Gerald Stern, Yusef Komunyakaa, Jane Hirschfield, and Seamus Heaney). Sit and read these poems to feel what it means to be in this world. There is such a wide range of subject matter in this book, that there is probably a poem here to help you through any dark night you might find yourself in. But these 60 poems are one person's choice and any collection like this is only a beginning. The editor suggests that if you find any of these poems useful, you copy them out by hand and put them in a binder. I would take that suggestion a step further. Start your own binder, of poems you discover yourself.