The Gift of Tongues: Twenty-five Years of Poetry from Copper Canyon Press

by Sam Hamill (Editor)

Edited and introduced by Sam Hamill, and with a complete bibliography of poetry published by the Press, The Gift of Tongues is drawn from more than 150 books and chapbooks and collects nearly 300 poems by some of the most distinguished poets and translators of the last quarter-century.

"Copper Canyon Press is an evangelist for poetry. It has always made books that are aesthetically pleasing, and this anthology is no exception. The rich diversity of poets inside from John Balaban to Tom McGrath, Carolyn Kizer to Eleanor Wilner, celebrates 25 years of sagacious and daring publishing."-Maxine Kumi

List of Contributors :
Vicente Aleixandre
Odysseus Alepoudeli
Heather Allen
Edgar Anawrok
Paul Antschel
John Balaban
Erin Belieu
Marvin Bell
Nelson Bentley
Stephen Berg
David Bottoms
Kay Boyle
Robert Bringhurst
Olga Broumas
Gladys Cardiff
Hayden Carruth
Cyrus Curtis Cassells
Thomas Centolella
Lucille Clifton
Gerald Costanzo
Sandor Csoori
Michael Cuddihy
Richard Dauenhauer
Madeline Defrees
Hilda Doolittle
Terry Ehret
Carolyn Forche
James Galvin
Ken Gerner
Patricia Goedicke
Susan Griffin
John Haines
Mark Warren Halperin
Sam Hamill
Han Shan
Han Yu
Paul Hansen
Gerald Andrews Hausman
Robert Hedin
Jim Heynen
George Parks Hitchcock
Gary H. Holthaus
Richard Hugo
T. E. Jay
Richard Jones
Jean Joubert
Jaan Kaplinski
Shirley Kaufman
Kawamura Yoichi
Ki Joon
Carolyn Kizer
William Kloefkorn
Kwon P'il
James Laughlin
David Lee
Denise Levertov
Timothy Liu
Barry Lopez
Frank R. Maloney
Thomas Mcgrath
Tim Mcnulty
William Stanley Merwin
Jane Miller
Oscar Vladislas De Lubicz- Milosz
James Masao Mitsui
Miyoshi Toyochiro
Robin Morgan
Sheila Bunker Nickerson
Ou Yangxiu
Mark Pawlak
Ezra Pound
Belle Randall
W. M. Ransom
David Ray
Tom Rea
Kenneth Rexroth
David Romtvedt
Richard Shelton
Maurya Simon
Gary Synder
Primus St. John
Kim Robert Stafford
William Stafford
Nancy Steele
Su Tung-p'o
Robert Sund
Karen Swenson
Anna Swir
Arthur Sze
T'ao Ch'ien
Elaine Terr

Genres: Poetry

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Poet, editor, translator, and essayist, Sam Hamill is author of more than thirty books including two from BOA Editions, Gratitude (1998), and Dumb Luck(2002). He has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including ones from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission, two Washington Governor’s Arts Awards, the Stanley Lindberg Lifetime Achievement Award for Editing, and the Washington Poets Association Lifetime Achievement Award for poetry. He co-founded Copper Canyon Press, and has worked extensively in prisons and with battered women and children.

Reviews

[W.B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sampling of twenty-five years of poetry from a very strong press. Some of the books from which the poems included here were excerpted are aging much better than others, as is to be expected. So the anthology, like virtually all anthologies, is hits and misses. If there's a unifying strength among the poets, a gestalt, it's probably a sense of historical awareness and an openness to multiple cultures as feeding grounds for poetry. If there's a common weakness, it's probably an overreaching for epiphany and a faith that transcription of historically painful subject matter instantly elevates careful prose to poetry. In other words, sometimes the poems forget the importance of alchemy (or even chemistry). Some elements remain intransigently inert. The Copper Canyon books I already loved, well, that was like paying twice to see the poems here again. I had been hoping some of the lesser-known poets might surprise me and there were a few surprises along those lines. But I had hoped for more.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sure I bought this book in a book store. An actual, physical book store! They hardly exist around me today. I've always enjoyed poetry and something about the cover and title appealed to me. This book has become part of my poetry writing process. I've actually read it multiple times by now. I read a few pages, a poet or a line or a word call out to me, and I write. It is an anthology so it's poems from a variety of poets. I wish the biographical information about the poets was included with the poems and not at the back. I'm sure there are other anthologies that would be similarly inspiring, but I have learned so much about poetry from this one. I have learned about being a poet, and being a reader of poetry.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

bought this secondhand at a library booksale; its inside cover contains a long, thoughtful dedication from a robbie to a kathy upon her high school graduation. it was written in july 1997. if she’s still alive, kathy’s in her forties now. wild

[Ambrose Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent anthology!!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology edited by Sam Hamill opened up many poets that I have now read. The book contains 201 poems written by 90+ poets. The list contains American and International Poets such as Vincente Alexandre, Heather Allen, Edgar Anawrok, John Balaban, Erin Belieu, Marvin Bell, Nelson Bently, Stephen Berg, David Bottoms, Kay Boyle, Robert Bringhurst, Olga Broumas, Gladys Cardiff, Hayden Carruth, Cyrus Cassells, Paul Celan, Thomas Centolella, Lucile Clifton, Red Pine (Bill Porter), Gerald Constanzo, Sandor Csoori, Michael Cuddihy, Richard Dauenhauer, Madeline DeFrees, Hilda Doolittle, Terry Ehret, Odysseas Eytis, Carolyn Forche, James Galvin, Ken Gerner, Patricia Goedicke, Susan Griffin, John Haines, Mark Halperin, Sam Hamill, Han Yu, Paul Hansen, Gerald Hausman, Robert Hedin, Jim Heynen, George Hitchcock, Gary Holthaus, Richard Hugo, T. E. Jay, Richard Jones, Jean Joubert, Jaan Kaplinski, Shirley Kaufman, Kawamura Yoichi, Ki Joon, Carolyn Kiser, William Kloefkorn, Kwon P'il, James Laughlin, David Lee, Denise Levetov, Timithy Liu, Barry Lopez, Frank R. Maloney, Thomas McGrath, Timothy McNulty, W. S. Merwin, Jane Miller, O. V. de L. Milosz, James Masao Mitsui, Toyoichiro Miyosi, Robin Morgan, Pabalo Neruda, Shela Nickerson, Bill O'Daly, Ou-yang Hsiu, Mark Pawlak, Ezra Pound, Belle Randall, W. M. Ransom, David Ray, Tom Rea, Kenneth Rexroth, David Romtvedt, Richard Shelton, Maurya Simon, Gary Snyder, Primus St. John, Kim Stafford, William Stafford, Nancy Steele, Su Tung-p'o, Robert Sund, Karen Swenson, Anna Swir, Arthur Sze, T'ao Ch'ien, Elaine Terranova, Cherly Van Dyke, Xavier Villaurrutia, Emily Warn, Katherine West, Michael White, Eleanor Wilner, Marianne Wolfe, Robert Wigley, Yoshihara Sachiko, and Yuan Mei.

This is a wonderful anthology, so if you are just starting to read poetry it will be a nice introduction to a large group of published poets.

[TinHouseBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devon Walker-Domine (The Open Bar Intern): On the poetry front, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the anthology The Gift of Tongues. In this rather hefty volume, Sam Hamill, one of the founders of Copper Canyon press, assembles an array of real poetic gems from over 150 different titles the press has published since its inception in 1972. The poets range from Su Tung-p’o (11th-century China) to W.S. Merwin to Lucille Clifton, and each voice is as stirring and stilling as the next. The themes, feelings, even moods found within these poems are as as diverse as the body of poets from which they are drawn, though many of the individual poems share an interest in the complex relationship between humans and nature, exploring with a sense of wonder and reverence both the pleasures and pains we derive from our interactions with natural world.

Hamill says in his forward, which is in many ways as artfully drawn as a poem, that he selected each piece in this collection because it moved him in some way, because it defied forgetting. And after reading just half of the poems in this collection, I can see why he chose the ones he did. Each poem presents itself in such a memorable way it saddens me that I don’t have enough time to just hunker down in a comfortable armchair for the day and memorize line after beautiful line.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

25 years of poetry from an independent poetry publisher; not as powerful as I expected. I know I have a specific receptor for certain poetry in my head and heart, and not many of these poems were getting across the great divide. They did represent a lovely variety of voices and cultures and languages.

Olga Broumas, Touched

...nights I'd go down

again and lie down on the gritty
shale and breathe the earth's salt
tears till the sun
stole me from sleep and when you

died I didn't
weep nor dream but knew you
like a god breathe in
each healing we begin.

Michael Cuddihy: "each time breath draws through me, I know it's older than me."

Odysseas Elytis:
"...whatever I was able to acquire in my life by way of acts visible to all, that is, to
win my own transparency, I owe to a kind of special courage Poetry gave me;
to be wind for the kite and kite for the wind, even when the sky is missing."

Sam Hamill:
the stars spell out
the ancient mathematics
if the heart in huge
desolate zeros, ciphers
of nothing, and despite it all,
I care.

[sunspot · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has an extraordinary range of poems and authors. It shows the depth and breath of Copper Cayon Press - a small press located in Port Townsend, WA. Sam Hamill is the editor and he is perhaps the most creative literary man on the west coast.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

an amazing volume of poetry from a press famous for its poetry. every entry a gem!

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting, delightful, unusual...and still more to read! Made it through about 1/4 of the way, before I had to return to the library, will check out again to read more.