Happy National Poetry Month!

I almost forgot to wish you all a fine and festive National Poetry Month.

Hope it's gone well so far. Stop by The Shelf Life every couple of days for new poetry recommendations, as I have put out a call to the constant readers and expert booksellers here at University Book Store to ask about their favorite books of verse.

I'll get the ball rolling with the newest book by Dean Young Embryoyo. Here's a short selection from the poem "Clam Ode":

One attempts to be significant on a grand scale
in the knockdown battle of life
but settles.
It is clammy today, meaning wet and gray,
not having a hard, calciniferous shell.
I love the expression "happy as a clam,"
how it imparts bouyant emotion
to a rather, when you get down to it,
nonexpressive creature...

Young and his friend and fellow poet, Tony Hoagland (author of the fantastic What Narcissism Means to Me can be found chatting here.

Young is an impressive poet—bright and lively, very funny, mischevious—and he wears his cowboy shirts tucked in.