"joy: 100 poems," edited by poet and editor
Christian Wiman, is a collection of 100 poems that examine, in various ways,
the state of consciousness we call "joy."
The poets represented here are for the most part well known,
as are many of their poems. But,
happily, there are poems here that seem new, especially when viewed through the
lens of "joy."
A brief list of
the poets, chosen at random, includes Galway Kinnell, Donald Hall, Lucille
Clifton, Josephine Miles, Sylvia Plath, Richard Wilbur, Sharon Olds, Wallace
Stevens, Yehuda Amichai, W.B. Yeats, Stanley Kunitz, and Thom Gunn. Poems, again chosen at random, include "Plumbing"
(Ruth Stone), "Tractor" (Ted Hughes), Laundromat" (Lorine
Niedecker), and "Unrelenting Flood" (William Matthews)--titles that
at first glance might not suggest "joy."
The book begins with an excellent twenty-eight page
introduction by Wiman in which he discusses the various shades of joy we might
encounter in our lives, examines closely some of the poems represented, and
briefly comments on his selection process.
