Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times
ed. by Neil Astley
Miramax Books, $16.95

Neil Astley's attempt to present poems for "interested readers who have little knowledge of contemporary poetry" while staying "true to the spirit of poetry" is admirable but not quite as apocalyptic as the title of his anthology implies. He takes an intuitive approach, shunning the critical reputation of poets, organizing his selections instead under the principle of personal experience: how alive each poem makes him feel. The idiosyncrasy of the selections—a work by an unknown Bosnian or Serbian is squeezed in next to Wislawa Szymborksa or Derek Walcott—sometimes provides the thrill of a new discovery, but, just as often, we are offended by what seems a kind of dogged, haphazard nonconformism. The fact that Staying Alive became a best seller in the wake of 9/11 (even though it was compiled before the event) is both a coincidence of timing and proof that the public will respond to poetry if it's effectively marketed. But any serious redress of poetry for these unreal times must engage a question which Astley himself raises in his introduction: how we can "spend time reading or writing poetry when humanity and civilization are being trashed all around us." This anthology makes no serious attempt to do that.

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