Bettering American Poetry V1 & V2 : A Review

By Maureen Alsop

There is no single influence more influential than the moment. What is the bettering of American poetry than it’s prescience. The oriflamme, the sweat deepening the valleys, was it the ocean behind each side, the banner torn over broken rocks, the rope, the bayonet, the Uzi by which the killed heart’s been the kill target.

These volumes of Bettering American Poetry attest to poetry’s power to better one’s belief in the collective intensity of voice, to give urgency, to gain political momentum, to identify, to engage, to gather, to question, to inspire. And what is better than to evolve into a better person, a better life, a better culture, a better country, a better world? And what is better than to be guided by what is most genuinely and beautifully human despite all carnage, shame, misogyny, misalignment, bigotry? The opposite of violence’s oppression is will’s imprint of courage. Here I’ve read the tidemark, listened for the sound, studied the channel. These anthologies are open maps for which there are no margins.

Click here to get a closer look at the map-collage-review and it’s key.

To listen to the content of the maps, beginning with blue [star quadrant] and red & white stripes.