Garrison Keillor’s latest anthology, Good Poems, American Places, is the strongest and most engaging of the three he has published with the goal of re-introducing poetry to people who have never understood or enjoyed it before. Part of the book’s appeal comes from the subject matter – American geography and culture – which is explored in dozens of lively, accessible poems that allow readers to experience everything from the shore to show business, prison to porches, and life in small towns and large cities. The book brims with vivid descriptions of coffee shops, hardware stores, barns, nursing homes, theaters, and more. Keillor is a delightful tour guide, both in his introduction and in his arrangement of the poems, which he selected because the writers were simply “carried away by a particular place.” Keillor wants readers to be carried away too, and he succeeds beautifully. "Good Poems, American Places" would be a great read on the commuter rail or at the beach on a lazy summer day.
