Word of Mouth

Starting in 1995, NPR's "All Things Considered" began presenting poets reading their own works. Introduced by "poetry DJ" Catherine Bowman, these popular shortsegments allowed listeners to experience poetry as a kind of verbal music, recalling its roots as a spoken art form. Word of Mouth, edited by Bowman, brings together the poems that have been featured onNPR, providing a window onto the dynamic contemporary poetry scene. A child playing with flashes of sunlight in the aisle of an airplane; a woman describing tropical fruit to someone in a faraway country; a man building adeck with his dead father's hammer; the musings of a Barbie doll participating in a 12-step program: these poems powerfully and lyrically transform the stuff of every day life. A celebration of the poetic voicethat includes 33 acclaimed writers, this vibrant anthology proves beyond any doubt that poetry is far more than just words on paper.

Quincy Troupe - Czeslaw Milosz - CampbellMcGrath - C.D. Wright - Jack Gilbert - Heather McHugh - David Lehman - Wang Ping - Joseph Brodsky - Paul Beatty - Lorna DeeCervantes - Paul Muldoon - Lucille Clifton - Naomi Shihab Nye - Richard Blanco - Albert Goldbarth - Carrie Allen McCray - Belle Waring- Russell Edson - Kevin Young - Nuali Di Dhomhnaill - Charles Harper Webb - Denise Duhamel - Yusef Komunyakaa - Hal Sirowitz -Lucia Perillo - Amy Gerstler - Maura Stanton - Marilyn Chin - Philip Booth - Jane Cooper - Diane DiPrima - ElizabethSpires "From the Trade Paperback edition."