Full Description

Poem I Turn To

Movies and poetry have been intertwined since the dawn of cinema. Poets have written about movies, and movie actors have written and been inspired by poetry. Selected by 42 acclaimed entertainers, The Poem I Turn To includes selections from Pulitizer Prize winners and Poets Laureate, as well as inspiring contemporary poets. Listen to compelling readings on the CD and read the actors’ thoughts describing how poetry has affected their lives.

*HEAR
30 poems on one audio CD, including:
* Adam Arkin reading
Theodore Roethke’s The Waking
* John Landis reading
Mark Twain’s The War Prayer
* Lili Taylor reading
Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken
* Stacy Keach reading Shakespeare
And Many More

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Billy Collins
Preface

Jason Shinder
Introduction

Adam Arkin
“The Waking” by Theodore Roethke
“All Night I Could Not Sleep” by Li Yi

Alan Arkin
“The Guest House” by Rumi
“The Man Watching” by Rainer Maria Rilke

Jon Robin Baitz
“In Despair” by Constantine Cavafy
“Naming of Parts” by Henry Reed

Bob Balaban
“Paradox” by Clarence R. Wylie, Jr.
“The Grasshopper and the Ant” by Jean de la Fontaine

Ken Brecher
“A Summer Night” by W. H. Auden
“Four Quartets: East Coker (Section V)” by T. S. Eliot

Steve Buscemi
“I Found a Dead Fox” by Mary Oliver

Brian Cox
“Ae fond kiss” by Robert Burns
“I Am” by John Clare

Peter Coyote
“Long-Legged Fly” by W. B. Yeats
“This Tokyo” by Gary Snyder

Eve Ensler
“i like my body when it is with you” by E. E. Cummings
“Epilogue” by Anna Akhmatova

Carrie Fisher
“anyone lived in a little how town” by E. E. Cummings
“This Be The Verse” by Philip Larkin

Michael Fitzgerald
“Four Quartets: East Coker” by T. S. Eliot

Jane Fonda
from “The Sonnets to Orpheus” by Rainer Maria Rilke
“Moving Forward” by Rainer Maria Rilke

Rodrigo Garcia
“Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias” by Federico Garcia Lorca
“Ode to the Artichoke” by Pablo Neruda

Kathleen Glynn
“My Son, My Executioner” by Donald Hall
“The Shipfitter’s Wife” by Dorianne Laux

Paul Guilfoyle
“Casualty” by Seamus Heaney
“To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell

Daryl Hannah
“On the Great Joy of the Stars” by Blaise Cendrars
“Ode to the Hummingbird” by Pablo Neruda

Philip Seymour Hoffman
“Inventing a Horse” by Meghan O’Rourke
“The People Who Succeed…” by Eugene O’Neill

Stacy Keach
“Sonnet 30” by William Shakespeare
“The Invitation” by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Swoosie Kurtz
“From a Norman Crucifix of 1632” by Charles Causley
“Death of a Son” by Jon Silkin

Michael Lally
“Danse Russe” by William Carlos Williams
“Faith” by Terence Winch

Alix Lambert
“Touch Me” by Stanley Kunitz
“Letter to My Wife” Miklos Radnoti

John Landis
“The War Prayer” by Mark Twain

Melissa Leo
“Point Shirley” by Sylvia Plath
“Sonnet 64” by William Shakespeare

John Lithgow
“The Lake Isle at Innisfree” by W. B. Yeats
“To Autumn” by John Keats

Billy Luther
“White Shell Ever-Changing Woman” by Sunny Dooley
from “On the Pulse of the Morning” by Maya Angelou

Peter MacNicol
“Sea Fever” by John Masefield
“Song of Enchantment” by Walter De La Mare

Matthew Maher
“The Song of Wandering Aengus” by W.B. Yeats
“The Invisible Men” by Nakasak.

Walter Mosley
“Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” by James Wright
“The Sundays of Satin-Legs Smith” by Gwendolyn Brooks

Tim Blake Nelson
“For The Union Dead” by Robert Lowell
“Death Fugue” by Paul Celan

Michael O’Keefe
“In a Station at the Metro” by Ezra Pound
“Passengers” by Denis Johnson

Mary-Louise Parker
“To You” by Kenneth Koch
“Keeping Things Whole” by Mark Strand

Kyra Sedgwick
“The Kitchen” by Jocelyn Wright

Paul Simon
“The Long Boat” by Stanley Kunitz

Stewart Stern
“The Pasture” by Robert Frost
“Forgive Oh Lord” by Robert Frost

David Strathairn
“Eurydice’s Hairpin. Cassandra’s Curse” by Adam LeFevre

Holland Taylor
“Dulce et Decorumn Est” by Wilfred Owen
“My love is multi-lateral” by Jean Pedrick

Lili Taylor
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
“Say Yes Quickly” by Rumi

Stanley Tucci
“Children, It’s Spring” by Mary Oliver
“Alone” by Anonymous

Taika Waititi
“The Tyger” by William Blake
“Night on the Island” by Pablo Neruda

George Wendt
from “Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2” by William Shakespeare
“White Key” by Carol Muske-Dukes

Dianne Wiest
“Black Rook in Rainy Weather” by Sylvia Plath
“The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter” by Ezra Pound

Alfre Woodard
“Ego Tripping” by Nikki Giovanni
“When a Beggar Beholds You” by Anonymous

Afterword
John Lithgow
On David Dukes

Carol Muske-Dukes
“The Machine” by Carol Muske-Dukes

About the Contributors
About the Editor
Acknowledgements
Permissions and Credits
Index

Excerpt

Excerpt

Reviews

Reviews

Curled Up with a Good Book
What a concept - a collection of poetry presenting the reader with poetry that is not the run-of-the-mill, “Best Loved” sort that graces most collections of poetry. There are some poems in The Poem I Turn To that are in most best-loved collections - “Sonnet 30" by William Shakespeare, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, and “In a Station at the Metro” by Ezra Pound - but most lovers of poetry will not know many of the poems and will find themselves pleasantly surprised by some of the poetic gems in this book. There’s Pablo Neruda’s “Night on the Island,” for instance, and Carol Muske-Dukes excellent “White Key” to name just two. In addition to beautiful written poetry, there’s also a CD included with the book of famous actors and directors reading poems from the book that inspire them.

The collection is prefaced by former U.S. poet laureate, Billy Collins and dedicated to David Coleman Dukes, an actor who died an untimely death. The University of Southern California honors him with the David Coleman Dukes Memorial Scholarship Fund; the afore-mentioned Carol Muske-Dukes was his wife. I had never heard of him before, but he must have been well-loved, indeed, for so many renowned actors, directors, and poets to want to contribute one or more of the poems that touch them profoundly to this endeavor.

What do you get when you buy this book? There’s the joy of re-reading old favorites and of reading some very good poems for the first time, and why and how certain poems have touched some of the most famous actors of this era, such as Adam Arkin, Stacy Keach, George Wendt, and the director John Landis. There’s the added bonus of hearing 30 of the poems on the enclosed CD. One of my favorites is George Wendt’s reading of “White Key.” A couple of other poems I really enjoyed on the CD (all of them are good - I don’t mean to dis the rest by singling the ones I mention out for this review) are Michael O’Keefe’s reading of “Passengers” by Denis Johnson, and Alix Lambert’s of the Miklos Radnoti poem “Letter to My Wife.” I’d never heard of these two poets before, but I was impressed with these examples enough to want to seek out their books.

Really great poems other than the ones included on the CD I liked quite a bit, like Daryl Hannah’s contribution of the Neruda poem “Ode to a Hummingbird.” I like Neruda’s poetry, but I had not read this piece before. How can one not fall in love with the poem, when it contains lines like the following, describing hummingbirds:

You’re so brave, the feathered armor
Of the black falcon won’t scare you:
You gyrate like light within light,
Air in air,
Intrepidly you venture

Into the humid sheath of a tremulous flower,
Fearless that its nuptial honey will decapitate you.
If you’re looking for a poetry book that is a cut above the usual best-of collections, one that will introduce you to many wonderful poets and poems you’ve likely been either unexposed to or under-exposed to before, then I can think of no better collection than The Poem I Turn To. It’s a rare collection of poetry that has within its covers poems like another favorite of mine, Peter Coyote’s contribution of W.B. Yeat’s “Long-Legged Fly,” rubbing shoulders with the Alfre Woodard offering of the Nikki Giovanni poem - which has become one I love, also - entitled “Ego Tripping.”

Beautiful poetry is food for your mind, heart, and soul. Get yourself a generous helping by checking out The Poem I Turn To. It’s soul-enriching, and non-caloric, too - what could be better?



Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Douglas R. Cobb, 2008

Midwest Book Review Cheri Clay
Many actors, directors and other moviemakers forlytwo in all come
together for "The Poem I Turn To". The list of directors and
rnoviemakers is amazing from Michael O’Keefe to John Lithgow to
Mary Louise Parker and Daryl Hannah with small bios included on each
orre. Each one lists their two favorite poenrs and why they are favorites
and how poetry has affected their lives. Also included is a small bio for
the authors of the poems.
Author/editor Jason Shinder a poet in his own right has done an
excellent job in bringing this project together. Shinder who has written
over four poetry books and has been published in several publications is
also the founding director of the YMCA National Writers Voice, YMCA
Arts and Humanities and the Gibson Music International Program and currently teaches in the graduate program at Bennington College.
This project was compiled mainly in remembrance of actor David
Coleman Dukes. Dukes who appeared in over 24 films including First
Deadly Sin and’Without a Trace is also known for his theatre work, TV
and FIBO with a way to remember him and support The David Coleman
Dukes Theater Scholarship Fund at the university of Southern
California.
From England’s Shakespeare to Paul Celan from Romania and every
co’untry âcfoSs the world-rs definit-ealv w r-yd e rangeof poetry rqpresented
here. See some old favorites and possibly some new ones. Excellent also
is the CD included hear 30 of these favorite poems read by the
moviemakers themselves. An excellent source for learning poetry for
teens and adults alike this is one book that will be around for years to
come with this amazing collection.
Cheri Clay
Reviewer

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Specs / Support

Trade Paper Specfications

• Length: 9.00 in
• Width: 7.00 in
• Height: 0.00 in
• Weight: 23.00 oz
• Page Count: 256 pages