The editor is a Nobel prize winner, so a collection based on his personal favorite poems, poets, and themes seemed like an excellent way to get introduced to a broader range of poets than I know. However, Milosz's sensibilities are very different than mine, and I eventually got bogged down. I found a dozen or so poems which I liked very much, and I'll be looking up those poets on my own, but Milosz is not the guide for me.

I would give this ten stars if I could. Absolutely the best poetry anthology I've come across!

One of the best anthologies anywhere. A much needed representation of world poetry for those of us whose experience has been limited by geography.

A lovely anthology.

The editors notes on poems were pretty useless, and the balance between authors focused a bit too heavily on his Berkeley buddies and men. However, there were some really beautiful works in here that will inspire my own writing. Was good for a library borrow to read on transit and romanticize life and the changing of seasons along the way.

'I have always felt that a poet participates in the management of the estate of poetry, of that in his own language and also that of world poetry.'
-Czesław Miłosz

For those, like me, that always wished they could have enrolled in one of Miłosz's courses at Berkeley, can find a bit of a consolation in A Book of Luminous Things. Edited, with a wonderful introduction asserting his intention to not defend poetry but 'remind readers that for some very good reasons [poetry] may be of importance today', and a slew of interpretations and insights into the poems found within, by Miłosz himself, this collection is a great way to experience world poetry through Miłosz's guiding eyes. He wishes to allow us to witness poetry with the same pure fascination and joy it reaches him, selecting the poems in order to show how 'the artist in his work hasto capture and to preserve one moment, which becomes, indeed, eternal'. Separating his collection into eleven sections, grouping them by ideas capturing a singular moment or emotion such as The Secret of a Thing, Travel, Nonattachment, or even Women's Skin (choosing to avoid 'Adding a few drops to the sea' of Love poetry and instead focusing on the sensation of pleasurable skin sensations, particularly those of women as detailed by women), Miłosz offers commentary and examples from a wide variety of poets across the globe to please our eyes. Viewing poetry through the eyes of my favorite poet is an uplifting and educational experience, introducing me to many new names and reaffirming the genius of poems I've long loved.

The single best aspect of this collection is Miłosz's commentary on the sections and poems. He occasionally analyzes the poem, but most often shares the emotions that boil inside him while caressing each carefully crafted line, and to share in these insights is truly rewarding. It is like attending a lecture by the great Nobel Laureate himself.

TED KOOSER
This poem, on a little town in Minnesota, is a synthetic image or even a collage. There is no single observer. First, we see the last car of a moving train, then we receive information about two lights in the darkness, one a bulb in the prison, the other a flashlight handled by an old woman And so altogether a province. The prison is an important building; and old house with cats belonging to a lone woman (the husband dead, children somewhere far away). Simultaneous images - moments are recaptured.

LATE LIGHTS IN MINNESOTA
At the end of a freight train rolling away,
a hand swinging a lantern.
The only lights left behind in the town
are a bulb burning cold in the jail,
and high in one house.
a five-battery flashlight pulling an old woman downstairs to the toilet
among the red eyes of her cats.

This collection is like riding shotgun with a friend and listening to their favorite album while hearing all their insights to each lyric, and discovering what each note means for them. I had a friend once where we would just drive around an analyze our favorites in such a way, a friend that would bestow such wonderful quandaries of life and attempt to deconstruct them to illuminate the joys in each detail. These drives not only taught me a lot about what I value in life, always looking to this friend as a teacher of sorts, but also let me truly appreciate the poetry of existence. This collection reminds me very much of those drives, except here I am passenger to the great Miłosz, and although he doesn't always give his opinions, he directs you towards beauty and asks you to decide for yourself what ideas and emotional fulfillment you can extract from each piece.

PO CHÜ-I
772-846
And here travel at night, before dawn, in a horse carriage, obviously only one stretch of a longer journey - it associates in my mind with similar travels in my childhood when automobiles in my remote corner of Europe were few. I love Po Chü-I for the extraordinary vividness of his images

STARTING EARLY
Washed by the rain, dust and grime are laid;
Skirting the river, the road's course is flat.
The moon has risen on the last remnants of night;
The travellers' speed profits by the early cold.
In the great silence I whisper a faint song;
In the black darkness are bred somber thoughts.
On the lotus-bank hovers a dewy breeze;
Through the rice furrows trickles a singing streams.
At the noise of our bells a sleeping dog stirs;
At the sight of our torches a roosting bird wakes.
Dawn glimmers through the shapes of misty trees...
For ten miles, till day at last breaks.

It is especially gratifying to read him praise so highly poets and poems that I have already loved, reaffirming my joy and giving me a bit of validation in my own opinion. It's like finding out your favorite musician loves the same songs you love. It's like a connection reaching beyond death, this glimmer of shared love, that human connection that makes reading and living so rewarding, powerful and beautiful, made only the more poignant by sharing it with a personal hero that really made me love this collection. Hearing him speak of Mary Oliver, a poet who might as well own my heartstrings, among others, really gave me joy.

MARY OLIVER
1935-
In view of the great number of nihilizing experiences in literature of the twentieth century, one should appreciate wisdom drawn by people from their contact with nature. Those experiences cannot be rationally defined. But perhaps most essential is the feeling of a universal rhythm of which we are a part simply thanks to the circulation of our blood. In this poe of Mary Oliver's, good and evil, guilt and despair, are proper to the human world, but beyond there is a larger world and its very existence calls us to transcend our human worries

WILD GEESE
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Occasionally, he tends to take a stab a poets, offering a reason why he dislikes a certain poem, yet still includes it within his collection for other reasons. I personally love [a:Wisława Szymborska|6669|Wisława Szymborska|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1231539628p2/6669.jpg], yet Miłosz asserts that she is 'too scientific and that we are not so separated from things' in his description of, what I find truly lovely, View With A Grain of Sand. He includes it, however, for its brilliant depiction of the opposition of 'the human (i.e. language) to the inanimate world and shows that our understanding of it is illusory'. There are a few other cutting remarks by Miłosz throughout this collection, and often it leaves you wondering if he actually hated the poem.

This collection contains poets from across the globe, and has introduced me to many I had previously never heard of. While his own Polish poets are represented heavily, [a:Wisława Szymborska|6669|Wisława Szymborska|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1231539628p2/6669.jpg], [a:Anna Swir|232489|Anna Swir|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-251a730d696018971ef4a443cdeaae05.jpg] (all of hers are translated by him personally, and he offers great praise to her art), [a:Adam Zagajewski|69377|Adam Zagajewski|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1241313613p2/69377.jpg], and [a:Zbigniew Herbert|49926|Zbigniew Herbert|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1237417929p2/49926.jpg] among them, a great deal of space is given to the ancient Chinese poets. Miłosz loved these poets for their philosophical eye and for their ability to 'draw with a few dashes a certain situation' in such marvelous power. Take for example [a:Tu Fu|5809676|Tu Fu|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-251a730d696018971ef4a443cdeaae05.jpg], a poet heavily referenced in this collection (and one I must certainly find a collection by soon):

WINTER DAWN
The men and beasts of the zodiac
Have marched over us once more.
Green wine bottles and red lobster shells,
Both emptied, litter the table.
"Should auld acquaintance be forgot?" Each
Sits listening to his own thoughts.
And the sound of cars starting outside.
The birds in the eaves are restless,
Because of the noise and light. Soon now
In the winter dawn I will face
My fortieth year. Borne headlong
Towards the long shadows of sunset
By headstrong, stubborn moments,
Life whirls past like drunken wildfire.
(translated from the Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth)

Many review here seem to complain of the high number of Chinese poets, which do seem to dominate the collection, yet they were Miłosz's favorites and analyzing their prose gives a great insight into his own. There are moments where one can clearly draw the connections of inspiration and see the great techniques Miłosz sharpened in his studies of these masters. It is also interesting to note that these same reviewers neglect to mention that the single greatest quantity of poems come from English written, particularly American, poets (I will concede that this is a male dominated collection, and I feel that an inclusion of more female poets would have been to its advantage). While Miłosz does touch upon the standards, offering some classic [a:Walt Whitman|1438|Walt Whitman|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1287462094p2/1438.jpg] or the [a:William Carlos Williams|15435|William Carlos Williams|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1199320930p2/15435.jpg] we all loved, and loved to groan over, in our Lit 101 courses, he does contain many of my favorites. This collection, published in 1996, predates the Poet Laureate status of many of the American poets included, such as [a:Billy Collins|438|Billy Collins|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1227111592p2/438.jpg], [a:Charles Simic|25415|Charles Simic|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1250203549p2/25415.jpg], [a:Ted Kooser|139984|Ted Kooser|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1273603524p2/139984.jpg], [a:W.S. Merwin|32513|W.S. Merwin|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1330844843p2/32513.jpg] and even fellow Nobel Laureates like the incredible [a:Tomas Tranströmer|446692|Tomas Tranströmer|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1317924790p2/446692.jpg] (if you enjoy poetry and have yet to read [b:The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems|305941|The Great Enigma New Collected Poems|Tomas Tranströmer|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327902895s/305941.jpg|296933], I urge you to find it and bask in it as soon as possible!) find honorable mention before most of America even realized who they were. Although many of these names were already relatively decorated at the time, I still credit Miłosz with having a great eye for poetry.

Composed of a vast assortment of wonderful poets, this collection is a great little dip through world poetry and a satisfying treat for anyone who loves Miłosz. While it isn't as focused as most poetry collections, this has the charm and nuance of being a book put out by a great poet which sets it above the basic 'Best English Poems' or '100 Poems To Blow Your Fucking Mind' nonsense that fill up bargain bins and shout to all half-hearted poet enthusiasts to purchase so they can have enough background to outwit the common streetwalker. This collection has heart, and personalized insight that really grasps the heart.
4/5

W.S. MERWIN
The following poet inspires us to reflect on what seldom crosses our minds. After all (literally after all), such an anniversary awaits every one of us.

FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF MY DEATH
Every year without knowing it I have passed the day
When the last fires will wave to me
And the silence will set out
Tireless traveler
Like the beam of a lightless star
Then I will no longer
Find myself in life as in a strange garment
Surprised at the earth
And the love of one woman
And the shamelessness of men
As today writing after three days of rain
Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease
And boding not knowing to what

This is the best anthology of poetry I have ever read. Milosz's prefaces to each poem are sometimes enlightening, sometimes problematic, but always interesting.