Today’s five recommendations come from Sally Molini. Please see below for more information on her work.

God Particles
Thomas Lux
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2008

Long ago, for better or worse, the double-edged sword of human potential took over management of the world. Given the fact that the same homo sapien mind which conceives of transcendence, kindness, healing and selfless heroism, is the same mind that seems hopelessly addicted to war, hate, greed and cruelty, how are we doing? Not so good, according to the often scathing, always perceptive poems in this collection. The language is deft and direct, the imagery down-to-earth, and every topic has a take-no-prisoners relevancy.

Tourist in Hell
Eleanor Wilner
The University of Chicago Press
2010

Devastating, empathetic, complex, apocalyptic, enlightening, frightening, wonderful! No kidding, these poems give me the chills.

Upgraded to Serious
Heather McHugh
Copper Canyon Press
2009

Playful language and witty, fast-paced satirical hits on unexpectedly salient subjects, including phrenologists, the dodo’s caca, and webcamming the world. A reader’s delight.

The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Oxford University Press
USA 4th Ed. 1976

Hopkins’ work, through striking word choice and rhythms, offers the reader a poetic thrill ride, especially when his poems are memorized. Memorization brings a closer intimacy and thus a deeper revelation of this poet’s lush sprung patterns and intense sensibility that, among other sensations, rinse and wring the ear.

John Keats Complete Poems
Jack Stillinger, Editor
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
1991

Might be a cliché to say it but that doesn’t make it any less true: the intellectual sweetness, tangible soulfulness and enduring sincerity of Keats never fail to nourish the heart and head. Tender is the night indeed.

BIO: Sally Molini co-edits Cerise Press, an international online journal based in the US and France (www.cerisepress.com). Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming in 32 Poems, Barrow Street, Beloit Poetry Journal, American Letters & Commentary, Cimarron Review, Denver Quarterly, and other journals. She lives in Nebraska.