My niece has asked for a good recent poetry anthology for her eighteenth birthday but there are so many about these days, I've not a clue which is best or would suit someone that age. I was just googling poetry and this forum came up, so I thought I'd ask here first. I've got about three weeks before I have to decide. I'm based in Birmingham where there's a good selection of shops or I could order off the net. Thanks in advance for your help.

Ken

My favourite, that I dip into time and time again is Bloodaxe's ' Sixty Women Poets' ( http://www.bloodaxebooks.com/titlepage.asp?isbn=1852242523 )

another I have and enjoy, if you don't think she'd want just women is 'Emergency kit' ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...3053344-6453543 )

Though I know it's an unfashionable view in poetry circles, I actually quite like Bloodaxe's 'Staying Alive'. It's a good starting place, I think, for people whose knowledge of poetry - particularly contemporary poetry - is limited, and it's excellent value for money, because it's PACKED with goodies, both new and old.

If she's ever thinking of getting married, by the way, I'm actually in Picador's recent wedding poems anthology edited by Peter Forbes, 'All the Poems you need to say I DO!' Can't think of a better wedding present ... :D

Or is it Being Alive? Oh, I don't know. Why couldn't he have thought of a different title? It was the first one, anyway. I guess that's probably 'Being' rather than 'Staying'. Or am I getting confused with that Travolta film from the 70s? :wacko:

First one was Staying, second was Being. I think of them as the Rattlebags of today, though that is probably an unpopular thought is poetry circles too. (I am sure some poems from the first volume are repeated in the second, though, which is a bit cheeky. I could be wrong ... I may have just read them somewhere else and thought I read them in Staying Alive. Rambling ... bed time.)

i'd go for a world perspective and get the Rothenberg and Joris, Poems For The Millennium (Volume 2 is for recent things). It's big and colourful and friendly.

Gary Snyder said: "It is a sourcebook for the future"

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'e googled them all and got some idea what they're like. The Rattle Bag seems like a good one but maye a bit old fashioned. My local book shop has Staying Alive so I shall check that out too. Thanks again!

Ken :D