<DIV><P>The centuries have changed little in this art,<BR> The subjects are still the same.&mdash;Kenneth Rexroth</p><p>Why poetry? What is poetry and why do people write it and read it? Why, as Dana Levin has written, "this urge to making a scrapbook of stars"?</P><p>Every poet, by accident or design, has responded to "Why poetry" by writing a poem about poetry (an ars poetica). Whether these poems focus on the personal, political, or philosophical, each recognizes that our world is more complicated than a direct statement.</P><p>As Marvin Bell has written, "Writing is all and everything." This anthology of poems about the art and life of poetry&mdash;which draws widely from Copper Canyon&rsquo;s 30-year backlist of poetry books&mdash;proves him right.</P><p><B>Poets write out of love and longing:</B></P><p>Lord, let me live / long enough to dare /a love poem &mdash;Cyrus Cassells</P><p><B>Poets confront suffering:</B></P><p>since we will always have a suffering world, we must also always have a song.&mdash;David Budbill</P><p><B>And poets write in order to live fully: </B></P><p>We all stumble into ourselves /like this, fitting our fingers to the shape of letters,/ while the page gallops out of our reach&mdash;Rebecca Seiferle</P><p>Only poetry lasts.&mdash;Ho Xuan Huong</P><p><B>Michael Wiegers </B>is the Managing Editor at Copper Canyon Press.</p><p>CONTRIBUTORS Included: [box]<BR> Kay Boyle,<br> Olga Broumas,<br> Hayden Carruth,<br> Norman Dubie,<br> Han Shan,<br> Jim Harrison,<br> Carolyn Kizer,<br> W.S. Merwin,<br> Jane Miller,<br> Kenneth Rexroth,<br> Ruth Stone,<br> Anna Swir</P></DIV>