Sweet Nothings

"Every lovesick summer has its song,
And this one Ipretended to despise.
But if I were alone when it came on,
Iturned it up full-blast to sing along --
A primal scream in croakybaritone,
The notes all flat, the lyrics mostly slurred --
Nowonder I spent so much time along
Making the rounds in Dad's oldThunderbird."
-- From "Cruising with the Beach Boys" byDana Gioia No one should be surprised that rock and roll musicturns up in the work of many of the Baby-Boom poets, where it conjures up poignantmemories, evokes a specific mood, or haunts the poets' psychic landscape. Arrangedin a loosely thematic manner, the 125 poems in Sweet Nothings mirror the variedforms of rock and roll, mimic its sounds, bask in its innocence, draw inspirationfrom its rebelliousness. For this collection Jim Elledge has gathered works by 79poets, among them some of the most highly regarded poets of our time: Frank O'Hara, Joyce Carol Oates, David Wojahn, Thom Gunn, Rita Dove, Lynda Hull, Albert Goldbarth, Lisel Mueller, Yusef Komunyakaa, Gary Soto, William Matthews. In the final sectionof the book the poets comment on the relationship between their works and rock androll.