Birds of Heaven 

by Ben Okri. One of Penguin's 60P series, Okri's small volume is one part poetry, one part sermon on the power and religion of words. Poetic and spare, Okri is a writer I've oft seen quoted, but I'd not read any of his work in context before now. This little volume is a perfect pocket, purse or coat volume, great to dip into for a brief aphorism or musing on the power of story.  Okri has a gemlike conversational poetic style that I intend to seek out further in longer works.

Ghosts of Gunkanjima, Catherynne M. Valente. Ghosts of Gunkanjima had an extremely limited printing of 20, so it's doubtful as to whether you'll come across this in your library - I was lucky to have the privilege of reading it thanks to the kindness of an online friend. I'm reviewing it because it's a near perfect example of skilled small-press form perfectly mating with the contents. Needless to say, it's also absolutely beautiful. Not much larger than a matchbook, the tiny poem is bound with metal mesh encasing a leaf skeleton; holding it in your hand, you can almost hear the ghostly creaking of the pet cricket in its pages, so out of place amidst the unnatural. The content is both beautiful and heartrending, half historical background, half dialogue between the ghosts of a husband and wife who at times forget their own death.

The Radiation Sonnets: For My Love, in Sickness and in Health, Jane Yolen.  The best sonnet is the first, after that they seem to rhyme a little too much. As a chronicle of an illness, it's an inventive and heartfelt cycle, even if the execution seems to lack a bit

Goblin Market and Other Poems, Christina Rossetti.  A gorgeous little collection at an unbeatable price.  The title poem is disturbing, sensual, and in meter.

Civil War Poetry.  Like most Dover publications, this offers a good overview for the price ($2). Lots of ballads and sing-songy self-indulgence, as well as one or two memorable poems.

The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey, Toi Derricotte.  I was privileged to have Toi as my undergraduate introductory poetry professor, and found her to be a strong articulate woman deeply interested in personal authenticity and experiential voice.  The Black Notebooks reflects these interests, and is a beautifully written, and often sad, account of her own experiences as a light-skinned black woman - the temptation to "pass" and a look at racism from those within and without the African American community.

To Paris, Samuel Hazo - More beautifully crafted lines about living from a local poet.

Just Once: New and Previous Poems, Samuel Hazo - Spare and gorgeous. Hazo includes quite a lot of rhymed ballads and songs, but his best work is the more personal accolades.

Jumpers, Tom Stoppard - I confess to not really getting this one - lots of moralizing and a bit about Zeno's paradox in the aftermath of a murder. As I do love Stoppard, this is one for the eventual reread pile

Arcadia, Tom Stoppard - a play about history and match and how we're all doomed and can never know what didn't happen to us. I think.