This is the Book Sense(TM) poetry book list

1. WHAT DO WE KNOW: POEMS

by Mary Oliver

Da Capo Press, $22

Nature's many small lives and deaths, freedoms and restrictions, stir in Oliver's latest offering. She paints the clearest picture of life's progress through gratitude. The "remembrance of the gorgeous and the powerful and the improbable" breathe deeply throughout. The sharp joys in observation and experience known only to those in later years ring smartly in this celebration. (88 pp.) By Tonya Miller

2. GIVEN SUGAR, GIVEN SALT

by Jane Hirshfield

HarperCollins, $24

Hirshfield places words perfectly, as if they were weighted objects in a domestic still life. Her poems build metaphors and then move in to set up house. There, readers encounter the meaning of everyday things: beads, burnt toast, an old dog's toy. She also explores the inevitability of slipping toward and away from sleep, of changing, of longing. Each poem offers quiet instruction in how to wonder at the familiar. (96 pp.) By Kendra Nordin

3. SAILING ALONE AROUND THE ROOM

by Billy Collins

Random House, $21.95

Billy Collins, America's poet laureate, appeals to both simple and discriminating tastes alike. (See interview, page 15.) His poems have a strong narrative element that allows readers to skim them and pick up most of what's there. Perhaps more important is the familiarity of his subject matter. He doesn't try to explore faraway realms; he's a master of the ordinary, everyday. (Full review, Oct. 25) (172 pp.) By Elizabeth Lund

4. POETRY SPEAKS

edited by Elise Paschen and Rebekah Presson Mosby

Sourcebooks, $49.95

Advocates of poetry as a spoken art will welcome this book/CD set of 42 notable poets reciting their own work. Although some make better orators than others – the recordings of Tennyson and Browning are more historical curiosities than intelligible readings – the power that Plath, Sexton, and Hughes lend their work is undeniable. Includes introductions by living poets, such as Billy Collins and Rita Dove. (352 pp.) By Amanda Paulson

5. POEMS SEVEN: NEW AND COMPLETE POETRY

by Alan Dugan

Seven Stories Press, $35

This compilation of Dugan's work spans a 40-year career in which he has won, among other awards, the National Book Award and the Pulitzer. He is irreverent and Whitmanesque in his carnal glory, worshipful in an acerbic way. His subjects range from astrophysics to student clowns to the day he discovered the telephone at age 6. The mythical melds into a world where nothing – and everything – is sacred. (448 pp.) By Christina McCarroll

6. MEMOIR OF THE HAWK

by James Tate

HarperCollins, $25

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