Time was, she declares Book

Southern poetry is synonymous with a realistic view of a world, a world sometimes hard and harsh as the lives of many of its poets. This anthology, now in its second edition, provides one of the finest resources for people interested in contemporary poetry.

Dr. Leon Stokesbury, long-time English professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta, includes an expanded list of poets numbering sixty-six, twelve more than in the 1987 edition. Several poets from the first edition did not make the current volume. No particular school or style of poetry writing dominates, and the poems are as varied as the poets themselves.

Each author's photograph is included, as well as a short biography; the numbers of poems range from three to eight per poet. Some of America's greatest contemporary poets are anthologized, Miller Williams, Wendell Berry, James Dickey, Fred Chappell, Dave Smith, George Garrett, Henry Taylor, David Bottoms, John Stone, Alice Walker, Donald Justice, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Robert Penn Warren.

With The Made Thing, Stokesbury has given readers a fine resource useful for reflection, enjoyment, and even a tool for the poet's desk. Spending time reading this collection is a joy for lovers of poetry and lovers of the South.

--Reviewed by Dayne Sherman, author of Welcome to the Fallen Paradise: A Novel and Zion: A Novel (coming soon)