Just in time for the centennial of Williams Stafford's birth comes Becca J. R. Lachman's lovely collection A Ritual to Read Together: Poems in Conversation with William Stafford. My poem "At the State Correctional Facility" is included in the book, and it's referenced in the intro, which is always nice.

This book makes me want to read and write more poetry.

That is one of the top compliments you can give to a poetry book, particularly one centered on a premier American poet whose teaching and emphasis on nonviolence inspired so many others. This collection is cleverly assembled of poems in conversation with Stafford's: some are tributes, some play off one or more lines and some (like mine) are linked only in their mutual interests. The result is a ready-made class, oh professor friends. (There's even a study guide with poets' commentary at the end of each chapter.) What fun that would be to teach...