Constructing Black Selves: Caribbean American Narratives and the Second Generation Book

In my second semester of college, on a whim I took a little one-credit pass/fail class about contemporary poetry. I was, in retrospect, embarrassingly ignorant about the subject, but the class was one that would stay with me the rest of my life.

This book was a primary text. Over the years, I had come back to to it so many times that it's practically falling apart. I can recite half the poems in the book by memory. There are many rewarding and meaningful poems, but a few of my favorites are:

Mary Oliver's "Flare" (I come back to this poem over and over)
John Balaban's "Story"
George Bilgere's "Catch"
Jennifer Hecht's "September"
Bob Hicok's "What Would Freud Say?"
Tony Hoagland's "Lawrence"
Peggy Steele's "The Drunkard's Daughter"
Dick Allen's "The Selfishness of the Poetry Reader"

If you read these, you'll see the kind of poems that appeal to me personally. They're narrative-heavy and many of them have a pinch of humor. If that's not your personal style, there are plenty of other poems in the collection more focused on imagery or lyricism.

I associate this book then with a bit of a personal awakening about the meaning and vitality of poetry in the modern world. It was a gateway to the world of urgent, funny, electric writing that could enrich my own life so much.