Rating: 
Summary: A good read before you kiss the kids goodnight
Review: I read these poems to my children before putting them to bed. The poems are consistently good, simple, and thought provoking for both a tired dad and a couple of kids around 10 years old. You know you have a hit on your hand when everyone is looking forward to tonight's poem.
Rating:
Summary: Better "Good" than "Best"
Review: Keillor's title seems intended to suggest a contrast with the "Best American Poetry" series, and what a contrast it is! Whereas BAP routinely and inexplicably celebrates dreck (it's a scandal how many terrific poems it excludes in favor of the mediocre and that most banal of banalities, the avant-garde), Keillor's anthology is full of readable, memorable, enjoyable poems--poems that can honestly be said to be _valuable_. How refreshing it is, too, to see poems by the likes of Lisel Mueller and Robert Morgan, poets whose work has long been highly lauded but who nevertheless get overlooked by most anthologists. Rita Dove may be right to complain about the small number of minority voices (see her letter in the June/July 2004 issue of Poetry magazine), but this is still the best general-interest poetry anthology to come along since Czeslaw Milosz's BOOK OF LUMINOUS THINGS.
Rating:
Summary: Better "Good" than "Best"
Review: Keillor's title seems intended to suggest a contrast with the "Best American Poetry" series, and what a contrast it is! Whereas BAP routinely and inexplicably celebrates dreck (it's a scandal how many terrific poems it excludes in favor of mediocrities and that most banal of banalities, the avant-garde), Keillor's anthology is full of readable, memorable, enjoyable poems--poems that can honestly be said to be _valuable_. How refreshing it is, too, to see poems by the likes of Lisel Mueller and Robert Morgan, poets whose work has long been highly lauded but who nevertheless get overlooked by most anthologists. Rita Dove may be right to complain about the small number of minority voices (see her letter in the June/July 2004 issue of Poetry magazine), but this is still the best general-interest poetry anthology to come along since Czeslaw Milosz's BOOK OF LUMINOUS THINGS.
Rating: 
Summary: It's an anthology, but don't let that frighten you...
Review: These kinds of major-press anthologies (especially when put together by a celebrity) tend to be worthless: either heartwarming sop (i.e. "Poems that have Inspired Me") or the same English-class warhorses trotted out again. So I thumbed through "Good Poems" and was surprised to find...good poems; a mix of the standards (Frost, Dickinson, Shakespeare), modern academics (Oliver, Simic), and poets who seldom appear in these kinds of anthologies (Carver, Ferlinghetti, Bukowski.) Well-selected, thoughtfully placed, and (thank God) fun to read, this collection is a real jewel; a perfect gift for someone who thinks they could never like poetry.Even if the poetry was less than stellar, this book would be worth buying just for Keillor's introduction. Instead of gushing empty platitudes, he takes a hard look at what makes a poem good (as opposed to just technically proficient.) Anyone interested in writing poetry should do themselves a favor and read it (Personally, I'm thrilled that someone else thinks Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, and Allen Ginsberg are overrated, though I have to admit T.S. Eliot is growing on me...)
Rating:
Summary: It's an anthology, but don't let that frighten you...
Review: These kinds of major-press anthologies (especially when put together by a celebrity) tend to be worthless: either heartwarming sop (i.e. "Poems that have Inspired Me") or the same English-class warhorses trotted out again. So I thumbed through "Good Poems" and was surprised to find...good poems; a mix of the standards (Frost, Dickinson, Shakespeare), modern academics (Oliver, Simic), and poets who seldom appear in these kinds of anthologies (Carver, Ferlinghetti, Bukowski.) Well-selected, thoughtfully placed, and (thank God) fun to read, this collection is a real jewel; a perfect gift for someone who thinks they could never like poetry. Even if the poetry was less than stellar, this book would be worth buying just for Keillor's introduction. Instead of gushing empty platitudes, he takes a hard look at what makes a poem good (as opposed to just technically proficient.) Anyone interested in writing poetry should do themselves a favor and read it (Personally, I'm thrilled that someone else thinks Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, and Allen Ginsberg are overrated, though I have to admit T.S. Eliot is growing on me...)
Rating:
Summary: good anthology
Review: This book caused a bit of controversy, but I'm not sure why. What it is, is a collection of poems that Keillor thought were good poems. It isn't meant to teach out of or to be representative of anything other than one man's personal tastes. And what taste he has. Sure there are some poets and poems missing. And there are some bad poems in here. But most are good poems and then there are some truly great poems in here. But I'll let the poets included speak for themselves. Here is a partial list of SOME of the poets you'll find within:
Ginger Andrews, W.H. Auden, Hillaire Belloc, Wendell Berry, John Berryman, Elizabeth Bishop, William Blake, Robert Bly, David Budbill, Charles Bukowski, Robert Burns, Hayden Carruth, Raymond Carver, Billy Collins, Wendy Cope, e.e. cummings, Roy Daniells, Emily Dickinson (and you'll find a lot of her in here), Tom Disch, Stephen Dobyns, Stephen Dunn, Ralph Waldo Emerson, B.H. Fairchild, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Robert Frost, Erica-Lynn Gambino, Deborah Garrison, Dana Gioia, Linda Gregg, Donald Hall, Robert Hass, Seamus Heaney, Geof Hewitt, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Langston Hughes, Randall Jarrell, Erica Jong, Donald Justice, X.J. Kennedy, Jane Kenyon, Galway Kinnell, Maxine Kumin, Stanley Kunitz, D.H. Lawrence, Li-Young Lee, Ursula Leguin, Denise Levertov, April Lindner, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Thomas Lux, Walt McDonald, Herman Melville, William Meredith, W.S. Merwin, Robert Mezey, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Frederick Morgan, Howard Moss, Lisa Mueller, James B(all) Naylor, Howard Nemerov, Frank O'Hara, Sharon Olds, Linda Pastan, Robert Phillips, Theodore Roethke, Kenneth Rexroth, Kay Ryan, May Sarton, Anne Sexton, William Shakespeare, Charles Simic, Louis Simpson, Gary Snyder, William Stafford, Wallace Stevens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Joyce Sutphen, May Swenson, Sara Teasdale, Henry David Thoreau, John Updike, Walt Whitman, Richard Wilbur, Oscar Wilde, C.K. Williams, Hugo Williams, William Carlos Williams, James Wright, W.B. Yeats
Rating:
Summary: a library essential for the curious poetry-lover
Review: this is a wonderful read of well-organized poetic gems. there's a poem to suit your every thought or mood, and it makes a great introduction to those poets with whom you may not be familiar. a great value, edited by one of the greatest storytellers of our time.
Rating:
Summary: Jamas
Review: Why is it that when you care and you love a person they treat you like your nothing, and after all the things you do and say to him, He still dont care.
Then he tells you that he's sorry and that he love's you and then you forgive him. And there you go again gettin hurt,but you still wanna be with him........
Rating: 
Summary: The title says it all
Review: Yes, the title speaks for itself. Collected here are good poems. Good, bland, middle-of-the-road conservative poems for people who like their poetry straighforward and unchallenging. I ordered this collection with great anticipation. I was sorely disappointed. Maybe it was the monotone droning of Keillor's readings (I bought the audio CD) punctuated by one female author's breathy renditions. Maybe it was all the God-themed poems included for good measure. If I'd done my homework on Keillor's radio show I might have known better. I want poetry to rock me and give me goosebumps, especially when it's spoken word. I never thought Bukowski, Moore, Bishop, Thomas, and their like would have their unique voices so efficiently muted. I gave this work three stars because, after all, it is full of good poems. If "good" is good enough for you, enjoy.
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