The Best American Poetry

Introducing The Best American Poetry 2018: Guest Editor Dana Gioia [video by Blank Verse Films]

This video was created by Mike Gioia for Blank Verse Films. For more BAP videos, scroll here. For more videos, subscribe to the Blank Verse YouTube channel. 

-- sdl

Introducing The Best American Poetry 2018: Guest Editor Dana Gioia [video by Blank Verse Films]

This video was created by Mike Gioia for Blank Verse Films. For more BAP videos, scroll here. For more videos, subscribe to the Blank Verse YouTube channel. 

-- sdl

"Anthem" [poem by Bruce Bond, video by Mike Gioia]

Bruce Bond is a poet living in Denton Texas. When visiting Bond at his house in a shady suburb of Denton, multiple subtleties strike you about the man-- his quiet manner, his late hours, his constant digressions into philosophical topics -- but it's impossible to miss the abundance of cats and guitars. Deeply interested in music, Bruce studied music performance and still plays jazz and classical guitar regularly. Music is central to Bond's poetry both as a subject and a component. Bond teaches at University of North Texas and his wife teaches at the nearby Texas Women's University. Bond's most recent book of poetry is "Blackout Starlight: New & Selected Poems", which you can buy here: https://amzn.to/2Pwh3Zz

Dana Gioia selected "Anthem" for the Best American Poetry 2018. 

 

Mike Gioia is a filmmaker. His Youtube channel is Blank Verse Films, which will regularly publish videos of poets reciting their poetry. Subscribe to his channel to see more poetry videos. 

"Ives" [poem by Mandy Kahn, video by Mike Gioia]

Mandy Kahn is a poet who lives in Los Angeles. She studied with poet Robert Hass at Berkeley. In her most recent book, "Glenn Gould's Chair", she writes several poems about famous composers such as Glenn Gould, Charles Ives, Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, and many others. You can buy her most recent book here: https://amzn.to/2KACFFe

Mike Gioia is a filmmaker. His Youtube channel is Blank Verse Films, which will regularly publish videos of poets reciting their poetry. Subscribe to his channel to see more poetry videos. 

-- sdl

"Ghost Ship": poem by Sonia Greenfield, video by Mike Gioia

Sonia is a poet who lives in Los Angeles. The fire struck her because she had frequented many artistic scenes similar to "Ghost Ship". Or in the words of her poem, she "had been that young." Feeling a great affinity for the victims of the Ghost Ship fire, she was moved to write "Ghost Ship" for Rattle magazine's Poets Resound issue. "Ghost Ship" was recently selected for the The Best American Poetry 2018 anthology.

Mike Gioia is a filmmaker. His Youtube channel is Blank Verse Films, which will regularly publish videos of poets reciting their poetry. Subscribe to his channel to see more poetry videos. 

Click here for the video Mike Gioia made for Brendan Constantine's poem that will appear in BAP 2018.

"The Opposites Game" [poem by Brendan Constantine, video by Mike Gioia]

Brendan Constantine is an LA poet whose most recent book "Dementia, My Darling" was published by Red Hen Press. You can visit his website here. The poem was selected by Dana Gioia for the Best American Poetry 2018.

This video was created by Mike Gioia for Blank Verse videos. For more videos, subscribe to the Blank Verse YouTube channel. 

-- sdl