BOW TO YEVTUSHENKO'S "SNOW IN TOKYO"!

My attention to Yevgeny Yevtushenko has been cursory and I saw no need to challenge my cussedness cursoriness when I picked up this morning a used copy of his 1979 book, THE FACE BEHIND THE FACE. I wasn't moved by the first couple of poems, and so would have put the book aside. But before the poems was an Introduction by the poet—an ars poetica. And I empathized with much innit so I decided to tolerate the poems and get the book for the introductory essay. See these excerpts (click to enlarge):

But having now finished the book, I'm so pleased to have it! For the last poem “Snow in Tokyo” is magnificent and worth the price of the entire book. It's a poem that could be the crowning achievement from a poet’s entire output.

The morale of the story? Pay attention to the ordering of the poems. Surely, the first poem  must be as compelling as the last….? (I edited the exclamation point to insert the question mark because, as with nearly all things poetry, one’s never sure…perhaps others, including the author/translators, thought the first poem is compelling and I'm just eye-deaf).

Anyway, here’s an update of my recently BOUGHT POETRY list:

THE FACE BEHIND THE FACE, poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Trans. by Arthur Boyars and Simon Franklin 

HARD LOVE PROVINCE by Marilyn Chin  

JUNKYARD DOG by Halvard Johnson  

HOTUS POTUS by Mark Young  

BOUGH BREAKS by Tamiko Beyer  

PORT LIGHT: A HAY(NA)KU COLLECTION by William Allegrezza  

FANTASTIC VOYAGE TO THE ORDINARY PLANET by Erin Virgil  

MAGNETIC REFRAIN by Nicky Sa-eun Schildkraut  

SOME VERSIONS OF THE ICE by Adam Tipps Weinstein (bought through a membership of the fabulous Les Figues Press)  

100 CHINESE SILENCES by Timothy Yu (Les Figues purchase)  

THE GATES by Vanessa Place (Les Figues purchase)  

THE BOOK OF FERAL FLORA by Amanda Ackerman (Les Figues purchase)  

LEAVE YOUR BODY BEHIND (Les Figues purchase) 

ABU GHRAIB ARIAS, poems by Philip Metres  

SPINE STILL HOLDING by Bonnie Long  

RESURRECTION by Nicole Cooley  

NEW COLLECTED POEMS by Eavan Boland  

AGAINST MISANTHROPY: A LIFE IN POETRY (2015-1995) by Eileen R. Tabios  

I FORGOT LIGHT BURNS by Eileen R. Tabios  

147 MILLION ORPHANS (MMXI-MML) by Eileen R. Tabios

Yes, I list my own titles when I buy my own books as it just means they need to go through my house on their way elsewhere...!