20 books that made me fall in love with poetry...

I found Ron Silliman's list really fascinating, not just for the insight into his development as a poet, but because his list really seems to focus on the question as asked, i.e., the twenty (or more) books that made yu fall in love with poetry. It is a very different question to the more usual, 'which poets have been most influential to your development as a poet', or, 'what are your favourite books of poetry'. For me, these questions would all overlap to some extent.

I thought I would get my tuppence worth, so here goes nothing. I started to fall in love with poetry in 2004, with a great big massive swoon, I might add. Almost overnight I made a transition from saying ridiculous things like 'Poetry is basically dead, there are no good poets anymore' to adoring and devouring poetry to the exclusion of most anything else. Three things, none of them a book, were most important to me here. The first occurred quite by chance while I was washing dishes in my second year student flat with my flatmate's (hi Tommy) itunes on shuffle. After 'Radiohead' or 'The Cure' or whatever, on came Frank O'Hara's voice reading a curious poem about having coke, and another about Lana Turner. I loved these poems and this instance was the first thunderbolt where I realised I was wrong about poetry. The second thing that made me fall in love with poetry HAS to be Silliman's Blog which I stumbled upon when googling Frank O'Hara I think in about 2004. As a resource for me to read and google and buy books I have found it totally invaluable. When people criticize Silliman for things he says on his blog I can never sympathize really because whole swathes of literature, and very different writers, have been made avaialable to me, almost solely through reading his blog and following up on writers that sound interesting. It still happens very often that I learn of new writers through his blog. I think the fact that I have weird choices on there, like Beverly Dahlen, is due to reading his blog and ordering the books from Abe. It might explain why my list is absurdly American though. The third thing that made me fall in love with poetry is Jacket Magazine. The wealth of poems, reviews and in particular interviews available for free whenever anyone wants it is truly amazing and wonderful. (why have i started making an oscar speech all of a sudden?...) Here's my twenty books,

The Collected Poems Frank O'Hara
The Collected Poems Edwin Morgan
Drafts 39-57 Rachel Blau DuPlessis
A Reading 1-7 Beverly Dahlen
Deviant Propulsion CAConrad
The Collected Poems Kenneth Koch
Bay Poetics Stephanie Young ED.
Collected Poems 1947-1980 Allen Ginsberg
Gasoline Gregory Corso
The Collected Poems Marianne Moore
Recyclopedia Harryette Mullen
Argento Series Kevin Killian
Collected Poems Tom Raworth
Collected Poems Lee Harwood
Talking David Antin
Active 24 Hours Alan Davies
Striking Resemblance Tina Darragh
Islets/Irritations Charles bernstein
In The American Tree Ron Silliman Ed
Disobedience Alice Notley
Skies Eileen Myles
Collected Poems Ted Berrigan