This is a welcoming avenue into poetry; for readers already devoted to the art it offers a fascinating, fresh approach. This anthology emphasizes the actual pleasures of reading poems: hearing the poem in your voice, bringing it to other people, musing about it, taking excitement or comfort from it, wandering with it, or -as in the Keats letter quoted in the Introduction - having it as a starting post. Many of the 200 poems are accompanied by comments from participants in the Favorite Poem Project - Americans of diverse regions, ages, and backgrounds. The editors contribute their own comments on some of the poems, which are arranged in chapters based on themes like youth, darkness, passion, and art.
