DO YOU BUY POETRY? THE RAW DATA

[I believe I made "Anonymous" all the respondents who asked for anonymity. If I erred, email me at GalateaTen@aol.com and I'll swiftly correct.]

RAW DATA FROM SURVEY:
(Three questions; each response listed in same order per question)

Survey conducted by Eileen Tabios; background info to survey and her own replies HERE, HERE, and HERE.

1) Have you bought a poetry publication in the last 12 months?
Ernesto Priego: Yes.
Barbara Jane Reyes: (8/7/08 reply) yes, last weekend.
Miguel Syjuco: I'd like to help out by answering. My answers are shameful, and therefore I hope they are helpful. // No, actually. I haven't [bought any poetry books in the last 12 months]. I'm so ashamed to admit! It's been years.
Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor: Yes
ANONYMOUS #1: Ten per cent of my income goes to pay for poetry publications. [Please keep name to yourself, Eileen, I don't want to become a sitting duck for poets trying to push stuff down my throat because of my tithing process.]
Becca: Yes! Lots!
John Bloomberg-Rissman: Yes
Crag Hill: I must buy 25-30 books a year (get another dozen or so sent to me). I buy more books in the summer and consequently read more in the summer. Can't remember all the titles, but in the last few weeks I bought the following (see next question):
Bino A. Realuyo: i know i did.
K. Silem Mohammad: Yes, I've bought a fair number of poetry books and chapbooks in the last year.
Logan Ryan Smith: Yes.
Chris Stroffolino: Probably not. I'm hoping this changes
ANONYMOUS #2: Yes, I buy poetry frequently. I'm about to use a $4000 grant I have to, for the most part, buy a bunch of poetry.
Michael Wells: Yes
ANONYMOUS #3: Yes
Jordan Stempleman: Yes
ANONYMOUS #4: Yes
ANONYMOUS #5: Yes
ANONYMOUS #6: I have bought bundles of books of poetry – more than I can count. YES!
Bruce Covey: YES
Claudia Carlson: Yes
ANONYMOUS #7: YES
ANONYMOUS #8: Yes
Steffen Brown: Yes
Jesse Glass: Yes, all of the time.
Andrea Baker: Yes.
ANONYMOUS #9: I'm given many books of poetry (20? 40? 60?) each year because I do criticism, esp. reviews. However, I did buy a few books of poetry this year.
Mark Young: Yes
ANONYMOUS #10: yes
ANONYMOUS # 11: Yes
J.P. “Jude” Dizon: yes
Joel: Yes
ANONYMOUS 11B: Yes
Catherine Wagner: Yes, lots
ANONYMOUS #12: yes, altho lack of funds prevent me from being a better patron of poetics -- which is one reason why online poetics has been crucial to my reading development, continuing to great effect the "free store" of the "trade economy" that has traditionally been associated with the radical branches of poetics. People trading their work (books) with one another is beautiful, almost an ideal utopia, where the transaction is one of energy as opposed to cold hard cash -- however, the sad fact is that perhaps a lack of financial support has held back an even greater amount of innovation & progression, by which i mean a certain freedom for the poet/artisit to finalize their work in solid form with no regard to operating costs. i am a rabid bibliophile & still hold books to be one of the greatest technologies humanity has produced.
Richard Lopez: it seems odd to me that anyone who professes to be a poet would not buy a poetry book. eileen, i'm running outta room at me abode! i don't keep receipts but i'm always stopping in at the local indie and commercial book stores on the way home from work and on the weekends. they are one of life's deep pleasures, browsing the stacks, picking up a tome and smelling the paper, ink and binding. as much as i love the ether, i can't do without being in physical contact with books.
ANONYMOUS #13: Yes.
Guillermo Parra: Yes
Dan Waber: Yes. I don't even know how many in the last 12 months. Easily over a hundred.
Tom Beckett: I estimate that I've bought in the neighborhood of 100 poetry publications--and that's just poetry-- in the last twelve months. When you factor in lit crit, art related publications, biographies and philosophy books, the total will go over 200. This is not unusual for me. Much to my spouse's dismay. Books, journals, chapbooks, CDs, DVDs and, etc, are flying in and out of our household all the time. // I also trade my own publications for those of others, receive comp and review copies of books, and even beg copies from time-to-time. I can't afford to purchase every publication I would like to have or to support, but I do what I can.
V. Ponka: Yes
Eric Gamalinda: Yes
Lars Palm: Yes
Lee Herrick: Yes
Geof Huth (http://dbqp.blogspot.com/2008/08/buying-poetry.html): [PREFACE:] Eileen Tabios is distributing a tiny little survey on the subject of purchasing poetry, so I thought I’d respond. As a crazed book collector, I buy many books of poetry but I also acquire poetry books as gifts or review copies all the time. The list below is light on the small press titles that I acquire through trade or as gifts, though the list still is a bit eclectic. Looking over this list, I note that the three presses I’m most likely to buy from are Otoliths, Redfoxpress, and the University of California Press. [ANSWER:] Certainly. I buy far too many books each year, certainly over 100, and many of them poetry
Burt Kimmelman: Yes
Marcella Durand: Yes
Anthony Robinson: Yes, a lot
Anny Ballardini: Thanks to Tom Beckett on Slim Windows who reminded me of Eileen Tabios’ mail some time ago. As I said on his blog, I starred her mail to go back to it later and then forgot about it. I will therefore take Tom’s example and answer on my blog. // Tom talks of about 100 poetry publications. I don’t think I am close to that number, but I did buy a lot. I just ordered 100 dollars in books, plus forty for the shipping. It is money, and it goes away, and then I have little time to read books because I am always here on the net reading, when I have time. I will have to reason things out with myself a little.
Jonathan Cohen: I have bought poetry in the past twelve months.
Remy: yes
Tess Crescini: Yes
Rhodora: Yes, in the last 6 months, about four or five.
ANONYMOUS #14: I have e bought, lessee, 3 poetry publications in the last 12 months. Not proud of this.
Rebecca Loudon: Yes.
Ross: Yes
Vangie Buell: Yes
ANONYMOUS #15: Yes
firstcitybook: See #2
Kelli Agodon: Yes
Aileen Ibardaloza: Yes
Reb Livingston: Um, duh, yes.
Ed Baker: See #2
Carter Monroe: I've literally purchased too many too remember or even count.


2) If so, which one(s). If not, why not?
Ernesto Priego: Just some journals. The Poetry Review and The Wolf. I'm broke too and I'm trying not to get any more physical books. I'm trying to live and move lightly. PS. I should say that nowadays most of my reading material I get on line, or in the library.
Barbara Jane Reyes: a used copy of ginsberg's kaddish (city lights pocket poetry series) at moe's in berkeley
Miguel Syjuco: I rarely buy books, and when I do they are fiction and non-fiction. But I'm always pleased when I do turn to poetry that I find myself saying, "Gosh, why don't I read poetry more?" I think it's been years since I bought a poetry book. Maybe because I'm still not finished reading my massive Norton Anthology of Poetry. Actually, no, I just remembered, I bought a collected works of William Butler Yeats about a year ago, but that was because it was 75% off. The short answer, I think, is that I am poor, and since I am a fiction writer I buy fiction books as a professional expense.
Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor: I've bought two books, The Business of Fancy Dancing (Sherman Alexie) and an anthology with poetry for young adults, I Feel A Little Jumpy Around You by Naomi Shihab Nye and Paul B. Janeczko.
ANONYMOUS #1: There are too many to list, but most recently, I bought POEM, REVISED by Laura Cherry.
Becca: Too many to remember off the top of my head, but books by Hoa Nguyen, Brenda Shaughnessy, Danielle Pafunda, Jennifer L. Knox, Bernadette Mayer, Bill Luoma, Graham Foust, Jasper Bernes within the last few months. I usually buy from SPD, Amazon, or make a couple treks a year from Chicago up to Woodland Pattern. Helping to run a small press has encouraged me to buy more books directly from publishers, too.
John Bloomberg-Rissman: At least 50 titles. I can’t easily tell you which because I don’t shelve by date. I don’t even make piles on the floor by date. [Bought most of the Meritage Press titles and then from this weekend...:]:

Clark Coolidge – At Egypt
Tyler Doherty – Bodhidharma Never Came to Hatboro
Brandon Downing – Dark Brandon
Norman Fischer – Success
Edmond Jabes – The Book of Margins (also borderline – purportedly essays but read just like his poems)
Frank Lima – Inventory
Laura Moriarty – Ultravioleta (probably actually a novel, more or less …)
Friederike Mayrocker – Raving Language
Friederike Mayrocker – Brutt, or the Sighing Gardens (one of the borderlines – called a novel but reads a hell of a lot like her poems)
Mckenzie Wark – Dispositions (another borderline – called a novel on the back cover but if this is a novel then all walls are down … which they are of course …)

Also just bought from BlazeVOX's Bake Sale--gave a donation that will get me ten books including by kari edwards, Geoffrey Gatza and Alan Sondheim.
Crag Hill:

Given, Wendell Berry (new)
The Ends of the Earth, David Bromige (used)
Situation Sings, Jack Collom & Lyn Hejinian (new)
The Human Abstract, Elizabeth Willis (used)
The Dream of a Common Language, Adrienne Rich (used)
Slinger, Ed Dorn (used)
nothing doing, Cid Corman (new)
Lit Interim, Christopher Arigo (new)
In the archives, Christopher Arigo (new)
this connection of everyone with lungs, Juliana Spahr (new)
Recyclopedia, Harryette Mullen (new)
The Outernationale, Peter Gizzi (new)
Night Scenes, Lisa Jarnot (new)
The Fatalist, Lyn Hejinian (new)
Time and Materials, Robert Hass (new)

Bino A. Realuyo: but since all my books are in boxes in jersey, i cant think of which ones.
K. Silem Mohammad: In the last few weeks, I've bought Ted Greenwald's 3, Dodie Bellamy's Barf Manifesto, a chapbook by Mike Young, Jackson Mac Low's Thing of Beauty, Sianne Ngai's Ugly Feelings (cultural theory essays by a poet), James Schevill's bio of Bern Porter, Jack Collom's Red Car Goes By ... these are just off the top of my head.
Logan Ryan Smith: Hard to recall all of them, but here's a try:

David Larsen, THE SAN FRANCISCO SOUND
David Larsen, THE THORN
Lisa Jarnot, NIGHT SCENES
Graham Foust, LEAVE THE ROOM TO ITSELF
Kate Greenstreet, THIS IS WHY I HURT YOU
Michael Palmer, SUN
Michael Slosek, Z FORMATION
Garret Caples, Complications
Landis Everson, When You Have a Rabbit
Frank Sherlock, Daybook of Perversities & Main Events

That's all I can remember. I'm sure there are others. But, now that I look at that list I realize just how much I receive thru trade versus how much I actually buy.
Chris Stroffolino: A crippling (expensive) injury. No money, no space to store books. Not making enough money off my art to support other people's these days.
ANONYMOUS #2: The most recent books I got were by Lucy Brock Broido, Ann Carson, and Mary Jo Salter. That's not typical of my buying habits--I usually buy more small press stuff.
Michael Wells: I've bought Poetry Magazine, Court Green, Glimmer Train, Michigan Quarterly Review, and New Letters. I subscribe to Poets & Writers. On books:

Migration - W.S. Merwin
Later - Cecilia Woloch
What is This Thing Called Love - Kim
Small Knots - Kelli Russell Agodon
Honey and Junk - Dana Goodyear
Where Shall I Wonder - John Ashbery
The Poet's Notebook: Excerpts from the Notebooks of Contemporary American Poets (Paperback) - David Weiss
Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words (Paperback
The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (Paperback) - Kim Addonizio

ANONYMOUS #3:

Want, Rick Barot (Sarabande Books)
Hallelujah Blackout, Alex Lemon (Milkweed Editions)
Donner, A Passing, Shana Youngdahl (Finishing Line Press)
Profane Halo, Gillian Conoley

Jordan Stempleman: When I lived in a town that had an excellent selection of both journals and books, I bought directly from the bookstore. Now that I don't have that option I tend to buy all my journals, chapbooks, and collections online. I have bought books from SPD, Lulu, small bookstores which sell used books on Amazon, etc.
ANONYMOUS #4: Gertrude Stein, Last Operas and Plays; Ron Silliman ed, In the American Tree; Grinnel et al eds., Aufgabe 7; Tan Lin, Ambiance Is a Novel with a Logo; Alan Davies, Book 6; Jules Boykoff and Kaia Sand, Guerrilla Poetry & Public Space; Kristin Prevallet ed., A Helen Adam Reader; Tom Hibbard, Critique of North American Space; Gail Scott ed., The Collected Poems of Marsden Hartley; Jackson Mac Low, Thing of Beauty; Tom Raworth, Complete Poems; and at least as many others.
ANONYMOUS #5: I bought a book by Will Alexander and one by Douglas Messerli at Skylight Books. I bought a load of books at AWP. I bought some books to replace books damaged, lost, or given away. I bought copies of my books.
ANONYMOUS #6: I am unable to list them all, but I have purchased individual collections (multiple), anthologies, and texts relating to particular poets (letters, etc.)
Bruce Covey: probably close to--or over--100 journals, chapbooks, books, etc., online & in bookstores
Claudia Carlson: Well yes, I am here at the Frost Place Seminar, in Franconia, New Hampshire, and so far I have bought Jim Schley's new book of poetry As When in Season. I plan on buying one of Andrea Hollander Budy's books as well and will pick one after I hear her reading tonight. Whichever poem blows my socks off, I'll get that book. [The Woman in the Painting] // And I plan on ordering David Trinidad's Plasticville which has a poem with troll dolls in it that he read in Robert Frost's barn and I LOVED, and he dedicated the reading to me because I too have placed trolls in a poem. // I think I will get a subscription to A Public Space, it really keeps catching my attention. I had heard about it starting when the editor left the Paris
ANONYMOUS #7: I can't list them all. Most recent ones were from Ugly Ducking Presse, but I have some Tinfish books coming.
ANONYMOUS #8: New Jon Godfrey (Wave Books); Jason Appleman's "Make Loneliness" (Seismicity Editions); several chapbooks from Catfish Press and Effing Press; "Not for Mother's Only" anthology; "Lyric Postmoderisms" anthology.
Steffen Brown:

gone, fanny howe
the language of inquiry, lyn hejinian
my life, lyn hejinian
field-russian, gennady aygi
everything from ugly duckling press released this year
everything from ahsahta press released this year
prairie style, c.s. giscombe (pre order)
my vocabulary did this to me: the collected poetry of jack spicer (pre order)
saga-circus, lyn hejinian
selected poems of friedrich holderlin, trans. maxine chernoff and paul hoover
the california poem, eleni sikelianos
lyric postmodernisms, reginald shepherd
the house that jack built, ed. peter gizzi
in the pines, alice notley
the importance of peeling potatoes ukraine, mark yakich
the fatalist, lyn hejinian
infamous landscapes, prageeta sharma
a magic book, sasha steensen
make loneliness, j. reuben appleman
isa the truck named isadore, amanda nadelberg
new jersey, betsy andrews
god bless, h.l. hix
your ten favorite words, reb livingston
the attention lesson, pf potvin
the color of dusk, robin caton
the cry at zero, andrew joron
fathom, andrew joron

Jesse Glass: Penguin book of Hebrew Verse; American Poetry Since 1950 (Weinberger); Poetics of the Pretext Reading Lautreamont
Andrea Baker: William Blake: The Complete Illuminated Books. Selected Poems of Rene Char. Both of these are from talking to Matthew Henriksen. // At AWP I purchased Grossman’s Descartes Loneliness (I like Grossman who Matt also turned me onto), Awe by Dorothea Lasky (hard to know what the origin of the buzz about that book was: readings/seeing poems/her “tour”....), and a New Directions book of spiritually oriented writing (because it’s an interest of mine)... I don’t remember what else. // Bookstore purchases are generally contemporary poets whose work I’ve seen in journals but I’m not sure exactly what I’ve bought.... Certainly much less than normal as I’m getting a philosophy/religious studies degree and most of my reading has been in that direction. (And I’ve been obsessed with Rilke so never feel I really need a new book to satisfy me.) // Oh, and I know I ordered Max Winter’s book from Tarpaulin Sky Press book after hearing him read.
ANONYMOUS #9: I'm given many books of poetry (20? 40? 60?) each year because I do criticism, esp. reviews. However, I did buy a few books of poetry this year. In BORDERS, I purchased a new SELECTED POEMS of Federico Garcia Lorca, and at a reading I gave with one of the editors of LANGUAGE FOR A NEW CENTURY, I bought that. (You're in it.) And I could swear I bought a third book, but I can't remember which one or where I got it. (In 2007 I remember buying Silliman's UNDER ALBANY.)
Mark Young:
Eileen Tabios has just posted a three-question survey enquiring about the patterns & motives of people for buying — or not buying — books of poetry. The questions can be found here, Eileen's own answers & reasons behind the survey can be found at the link embedded in her statement above.

As a publisher who is quite amazed at the lack of a genuine poetry book-buying public out there, I'll be very interested in what she turns up. & yet, knowing some of my own reasons for why I buy or don't buy, I really shouldn't be amazed.

I do read a lot of poetry, partially because, as an editor, an awful lot of poetry — & a lot of awful poetry — traverses my monitor; I read a lot of stuff on blogs & e-zines; I tend to get a number of books sent to me; many of the books I would be tempted to buy are actually the books I publish. I also live in a geographically isolated place — only one bookstore which doesn't stock poetry unless it's "famous Australian" (& my thoughts on that category can be ascertained by a post not too far below this one); a substantive postal impost on anything bought on line — which tends to make for buying books on my, increasingly less frequent, trips to something that approximates a big city, the leave-home-with-an-empty-suitcase / come-back-with-an-overweight-one method. All of which means that I don't really buy much poetry, instead tend towards detective fiction with, if I'm buying on line, maybe a book, generally a selected/collected, of poetry added to my purchase.

BUT.
a.) The books that I sell most of are those from poets who are young & energetic & who have the ability to self-promote, & those sell mainly at readings.

b.) There are a lot of people out there who expect to be given a copy of a book because they have a nodding acquaintance with the author & who, put out by not being considered worthy of gift, won't actually support the poet by buying a book.

c.) There are a number of sneaky people out there who write asking for copies so they can review the book, but never do. (& I'm willing to bet that if you asked a number of small press publishers who made such requests of them, the same names would continue to appear.)

d.) As Ron Silliman continues to remind us, there are an enormous number of books of poetry being published.

For the record, these are the books of poetry I've bought in the past year.

The Gary Snyder Reader
The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan
David Shapiro: New & Selected Poems
Unfathoms by Kirsten Kaschock
Thing of Beauty by Jackson Mac Low
These are my Rivers by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The Age of Huts (compleat) by Ron Silliman

ANONYMOUS #10: Surviving the Storm -oh it was JUST over 12 months ago. . .
ANONYMOUS #11: I have bought 3 second hand copies of Landfall (207, 208,209). I have bought new “Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance” edited by Jack Ross and Jan Kemp. I also swapped 3 jars of homemade chutney for 2 poetry books direct from the author (Peter Bradburn).
J.P. Dizon:

Moon over Magarao--Luis Cabalquinto
The Sorrows of Water--Neil Garcia
Jolography--Paolo Manalo
Decimal Points--Ricardo de Ungria
Renaissance--Ruth Forman
THe Other Side of the Night--Francisco Alarcon
Powerless--Tom Dlugos (might be wrong)
My American Kundiman--Patrick Rosal
Vice--Ai
Some book of poems by Jose Maria Sison from when he was in prison
A book on japanese tankas
an anthology of mahmoud darwish's work
danger/beauty--jessica hagedorn

Joel: Jane Hirschfield, Chase Twitchell, D. Nurkse
ANONYMOUS 11B: I subscribe to some mags. bought some books written by people I know. one or two from people I don't know. only remember some of the titles. most from very small presses.
Catherine Wagner: Oh lord. I have no idea, I prob buy 2-3 books or more a month, more if I happen to go to a big city/festival. Bad, bad; really fucks with my budget. Latest, from this summer and late spring, heavily skewed toward British stuff b/c I was teaching over there this summer:

Dana Ward's new chap
Allen Fisher, Place
Maggie O'Sullivan, Body of Work
Peter Manson, Between Cup and Lip
Tom Pickard, Ballad of Jamie Allen
Christine Hume, Lullaby
Jonty Tiplady chap
Frances Kruk, A Discourse on Vegetation and Motion
Jennifer Moxley, The Middle Room
Jennifer Moxley, The Line
Stephen Rodefer, Mon Canard
H.D., Trilogy
Oulipoems, Philip Terry
Implexures, Karen Mac Cormack
Kevin Nolan, Loving Little Orlick
William Fuller, Three Poems
Simon Jarvis, The Unconditional
Poemas, Cesar Vallejo, tr. William Rowe
Harriet Tarlo, Poems 1990-2003
Salt Companion to Geraldine Monk
Keston Sutherland, Hot White Andy
Alice Notley, Above the Leaders
Alice Notley, In the Pines
Jackson Mac Low, Selected
Susan Howe, Souls of the Labadie Tract
Jasper Bernes, Starsdown
Brandon Downing, Dark Brandon

A few mags -- Abraham Lincoln and Pilot and /NOR are mags I remember buying. // I subscribe to Reality Street Editions; I think I subscribe to Ugly Duckling but maybe my subscription has run out?
ANONYMOUS #12:

Geof Huth "Longfellow Memoranda"
Geof Huth "Out of Character"
Rachel Blau DuPlessis "Torques"
Steve McCaffery "seven pages missing vol. 2"
Yoko Ono "grapefruit"
Bill Kennedy and Darren Wershler-Henry "apostrophe"
Tom Phillips "a humument"
Spaltung #2 (Atlanta poets group)
Pissing Ice (an anthology of 'New' Canadian poets)
misc. chapbooks from Rust Belt books whilst visiting Buffalo NY
Used:
Ronald Gross & George Quasha "open poetry" anthology
bp nichol "martyrology book 5"
many more..

Richard Lopez: these are a few of the poetry books i've purcharsed these past few weeks or so.

8x8x7 by colin smith
red shifting by aleksandr skidan
the sense record and other poems by jennifer moxley
20 questions by dennis phillips
burning in water drowning in flame by charles bukowski
nine alexandrias by semezdin mehmedinovic
pieces by robert creeley
poem on a train by jordan davis
anxious moments by ales debeljak

and here is a short list of some of the poetry pubs i've picked up from a local magazine shop, the newsbeat, in the past month or so.

jubilat 14
black warrior review, fall - winter 2007
6x6 15 [got at pegasus bookstore in berkeley]
580 split 10

and these don't include the genre fiction as well as movie and art pubs, and dvds.
ANONYMOUS #13:
1. XXXXX, by XXXXX, Why? Two reasons: Poet’s work is wonderful, but mostly because … she is a poet in need. I was a single mother for 17 years and know how hard it is.
2. The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. Why? Because I once owned a copy and it has terrific work in it.
3. The Best of American Poetry 2008. Why? I buy it every year. This year it had some poems from some of my favorite poets.
If not, why not?
I am not working because of health problems and can barely afford to eat, much less buy books. I eat PBJ sandwiches for dinner 4 nights a week. There are probably 100 books of poetry I would have bought this year, had I been able to buy them. I should not have bought the books I did buy, because I really couldn't afford to buy them. When I was working, I spent, on average $2,500 a year buying books, including books of poetry.
Guillermo Parra: The collected poems of Trinidad-born, Venezuelan poet Miguel James (1953): An anthology called "Mi novia Ítala come flores y otras novias" Mérida: Ediciones Mucuglifo/CENAL, 2007)
Dan Waber: I am traveling at the moment, so a comprehensive list is not going to be possible. But, I'm not sure you want a list of over a hundred
anyway.
Tom Beckett: I don't have the time or energy to run down the whole list of titles I purchased. Here are the ones that come to mind immediately:

Book 6 by Alan Davies
Dark Brandon (the dvd) by Brandon Downing
Vertigo by Martha Ronk
Green and Gray by Geoffrey G. O'Brien
Rising, Falling, Hovering by C.D. Wright
Collected Poems by Philip Whalen
Thing of Beauty by Jackson Mac Low
sexoPUROsexoVELOZ by Dolores Dorantes
The Romance of Happy Workers by Anne Boyer
Collected Long Poems, Kenneth Koch
Flim-yoked Scrim by Diane Ward
Notes from the Air by John Ashbery
Situation, Sings by Hejinian and Collom
The Cow by Ariana Reines
Day Ocean State of Stars' Night by Leslie Scalapino
Way More West by Ed Dorn
Ripple Effect by Elaine Equi
Broken World by Joseph Lease
Capital of Pain by Paul Eluard
Complete Minimal Poems by Aram Saroyan
One Big Self by C. D. Wright
Inbox and a few other books (the titles of which escape me now) by Noah Eli Gordon
A Semblance by Laura Moriarity
The Lyrics by Fanny Howe
Recyclopedia by Harryette Mullen
The Odyssey by Homer
The Transformation by Juliana Spahr (plus her Meritage Press tiny book, the title of which escapes me now -[from THE TRADITION]).

I'm sorry I don't have the energy to list more right now. I know I'm leaving a lot of great things out. And then there are all the great things I've been gifted with or traded for. Ach.
V. Ponka:

The Complete Kenneth Rexroth
Pelican Dreaming: Collected Poems of Mark Young
My Vocabulary Did This To Me: Collected Poems of Jack Spicer (pre-order)
The Collected Long Poems of KennethKoch
The Collected Short Poems of Kenneth Koch
The Cantos by Ezra Pound
The Maximus Poems by Charles Olson
The Collected Poems of Charles Olson
Compleat Book of Huts by Ron Silliman
The Angel Hair Anthology, ed. by Anne Waldman

(I bet I am forgetting some….)
Eric Gamalinda: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS BY ADAM ZAGAJEWSKI
Lars Palm: a few. Maybe ten or so
Lee Herrick: Some of the many include: Juan Felipe Herrera's Half of the World in Light and 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross the Border, Cate Marvin's Fragment of the Head of a Queen, Matthew Shenoda's book, Rigoberto Gonzalez's Other Fugitives, Other Strangers, Oliver de la Paz's Furious Lullaby, Ivy Alvarez's Mortal, Gillian Wegener's The Opposite of Clairvoyance, two books by Eloise Klein Healy, Jon Pineda's Birthmark, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs' Paper Pavilion.
Geof Huth:

Armantrout, Rae. Next Life
Ashbery, John. The Mooring of Starting Out: The First Five Books of Poetry
Baroni, Vittore. Don’t You Rock Me Dada-O
Bennett, C. Mehrl and Collaborators. My Kimono Book (visual poems)
Berrigan, Ted. The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan
Blaine, Julien. Poëmes des années 50 quelques ihali «équilibre» ballades (originellles [sic] & finallles [sic] 7 pas d’autres texts (visual poems)
Booth, Philip. Lifelines: Selected Poems
Corman, Cid. The Next One Thousand Years
Creeley, Robert. The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley, 1945-1975
Creeley, Robert. The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley, 1975-2005
Creeley, Robert. If I were writing this
Creeley, Robert. Thirty Things
Delvaux, Jean. Eloge d’Océana
Dunn, Stephen. The Insistence of Beauty
Everson, Landis. Everything Preserved: Poems, 1955-2005
Everson, Landis. When You Have a Rabbit
Gorrick, Anne. Kyotologic (Well, I traded for this one)
Hass, Robert. Time and Materials
H.D. Collected Poems, 1912-1944
Herbert, Zbigniew. The Collected Poems, 1956-1998
Huth, Geof. Longfellow Memoranda
Justice, Donald. Collected Poems
Kinnell, Galway. Mortal Acts, Mortal Words
Klane, Matthew and Adam Golaski. A Sing Economy
Klane, Matthew and Adam Golaski. Oh One Arrow
Kleinzahler, August. Sleeping it Off
Kunitz, Stanley. The Collected Poems
Lamantia, Philip. Meadowlark West
Laughlin, James. Poems New and Selected
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Complete in Two Volumes (1864)
Matsuo, Basho. Basho: The Complete Haiku
Matthews, William. Search Party: Collected Poems
Mitchell, Susan. Erotikon
Nakamura, Keiichi. Z
Nichol, bp. The Alphabet Game: a bpNichold reader
Olson, Charles. The Collected Poems of Charles Olson Excluding The Maximus Poems
Olson, Charles. The Maximus Poems
Otoliths Issue Nine, Part One, Southern Autumn, 2008
Otoliths Issue Nine, Part Two, Southern Autumn, 2008
Patchen, Kenneth. The Walking-Away World (visual poems)
Patchen, Kenneth. We Meet
Philips, Rodney. The Hand of the Poet: Poems and Papers in Manuscript
Pomerand, Gabriel. Saint Ghetto of the Loans (visual poems)
Rich, Adrienne. Midnight Salvage: Poems, 1995-1998
Rothenberg, Jerome and Pierre Joris. Poems for the Millenium, Volume One
Ryan, Abram J. (Father Ryan). Poems: Patriotic, Religious, Miscellaneous
Scalapino, Leslie. way
Selby, Spencer. Flush Contour
Silliman, Ron, ed. In the American Tree
Simic, Charles. That Little Something
Simic, Charles. Night Picnic
Stein, Gertrude. Stanzas in Meditation and Other Poems [1929-1933]
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A New Verse Translation by Simon Armitage
Valentine, Jean. Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003
Vengua, Jean. Prau
Walcott, Derek. Collected Poems, 1948-1984
Weinberger, Eliot, ed. American Poetry Since 1950: Innovators & Outsiders: An Anthology
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass (a nice big edition from 1931 to supersede my paperback)
Williams, Jonathan. An Ear in Bartram’s Tree
Wolfe, Thomas. A Stone, A Leaf, A Door: Poems by Thomas Wolfe, Selected and Arranged in Verse by John S. Barnes
Wood, Reid. Work Anonymously (visual poems)
Zukofsky, Louis. All: The Collected Short Poems, 1923-1958

These are not all the books I’ve bought in the past twelve months. I know that at least two are not on this list, though I can’t remember what they were and can’t find them to confirm.
Burt Kimmelman: I bought some chapbooks and full length books at readings and via mailings from Finishing Line Press. P.S. I am probably forgetting other poetry books I’ve purchased in the last year.
Marcella Durand:

On Spec, Tyrone Williams
Unexplained Presence, Tisa Bryant
Newcomer Can't Swim, Renee Gladman
The Cry at Zero: Selected Prose, Andrew Joron
Woods and Chalices, Tomaz Salamun
Think of One, P. Inman
Selected Poems 1965-2000, Merril Gilfillan
Autoportraits, Stacy Szymaszek
Some Mariners, Stacy Szymaszek
Incubation: a space for monsters, Bhanu Kapil Rider
Selected Letters, Emily Dickinson
Anthony Robinson: Too many to recall, but I remember these:
Kim Chinquee's Oh Baby (ravenna)
Afterpastures recently, the Caketrain contest winner
Amanda Nadelburg's Isa the Truck Named Isadore from Slope
Two books by Ashbery, The Tennis-Court Oath, and A Worldly Country.
Tao Lin's Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (Melville House)
Matt Cook's The Unreasonable Slug (Manic D Press)
Stacy Szymaszek's Emptied of All Ships (Litmus maybe?)
Ann Boyer's chap from Mitzvah Press.
Two issues of PHOEBE. One issue of KEYHOLE. One of NOON (which I guess isn't poetry). One REDIVIDER.

Anny Ballardini: I don’t really have a preference. Or if I do, I have so many preferences that I cannot keep up with them. I know I badly wanted to start reading some Tinfish books, and finally I took a course with Susan Schultz for extra credits and she used her books and recommended some more, so I ended up with a bunch of ten in a coup, and I enjoyed every one of them. That is maybe also why I started my MFA (by now ended), to be obliged to read books. I need books, how can I say it better? I need them as much as I need my food, maybe that gives an idea.
Jonathan Cohen: The books are:

My Life in the Nineties Hejinian, Lyn
My Life Hejinian, Lyn
Centuries, poems and thanksgivings. Traherne, Thomas
Complete short poetry Zukofsky, Louis
Just in time : poems, 1984-1994 Creeley, Robert
Track Finkelstein, Norman
Tjanting (Salt Modern Classics) Silliman, Ron
"A" Zukofsky, Louis
Algernon Charles Swinburne : major poems and selected prose
Swinburne, Algernon Charles
Torques: Drafts 58-76 (Salt Modern Poets) DuPlessis, Rachel Blau
Drafts (Salt Modern Poets) DuPlessis, Rachel Blau
The age of huts (compleat) Silliman, Ronald

Remy:

Radio, Radio, Ben Doyle
Captivity, Toi Derricotte
Splay Anthem, Nathaniel Mackey
For the Confederate Dead, Kevin Young
Miracle Fruit, Aimee Nez.
Rules of the House, Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
Uproar, Brooks Haxton
Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems, William Carlos Williams
After a Spell, Nance Van Winckel
100 Love Sonnets, Pablo Neruda, Tr. Gustavo Escobedo
Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology, Czeslaw Milosz
Sea Change, Jorie Graham
God Particles, Thomas Lux
Burnt Island, D. Nurkse
Portable Kisses, Tess Gallagher
Poems and Prose, G.M. Hopkins
Sound and Form in Modern Poetry, Harvey Gross and Robert McDowell
Frost : Centennial Essays

Tess Crescini: CANTO GENERAL, PABLO NERUDA.
Rhodora: [books by] Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Alicia Suskind Ostriker, Liesel Mueller, Yehuda Amichai.
ANONYMOUS #14:

Bino Realuyo: The Gods We Worship Live Next Door.
Luis Francia: Museum of Absences.
Collected Poems of Philip Whalen

Until recently, I've been flat out broke, busted, in debt. And since, at one point, I had 4 part time jobs, I hardly had time to think about purchasing poetry books.
Also, people keep mailing me poetry books, for which I am grateful. // Philip Whalen's Collected Poems is the first major poetry book purchase I've made since I became more or less in the black. I already have a list ready for my next purchases, though. For me, buying poetry is a luxury, and now that I have a regular income, I still have to condition myself into believing that it's really ok for me to spend my money on such books.
Rebecca Loudon: Tin House, The Paris Review, The Believer, Lungfull!, Forklift Ohio, Chicago Review, Farid Matuk’s Is It The King, Amy Gerstler’s Crown of Weeds, Cal Bedient’s Candy Necklace, Cal Bedient’s The Violence of the Morning, Franz Wright’s God’s Silence: Poems. Sometimes Poetry if I am tricked into it by the cover. Ploughshares for the fiction.
Ross: About 100, so I won't name them all, but my most recent purchases were Robert Hass's Praise and a subscription to New England Review.
Vangie Buell: Something about the Blues by Al Young California Poet Laureate
ANONYMOUS #15: A sampling: After the Poison by Collin Kelley, Trouble & Honey by Jilly Dybka, Queen of a Rainy Country by Linda Paston, The Fotieth Day by Kazim Ali, Theories of Falling by Sandra Beasley, Selected Poems by Frank O'Hara, Selected Poems by Robert Creeley, God Particles by Thomas Lux, Behind My Eyes by Li-Young Lee, Life For Us by Chorman Hardi.
firstcitybook: Most recently, I discovered Robert Wrigley's Earthly Meditations, his collection of new and selected poems, at Foozles, a discount bookstore in the Kansas City metro area. Since I have two other of his books, I decided to augment my collection by getting his selected poems and reading some of the poems from earlier books of his. // I pre-ordered Derick Burleson's Never Night from the publisher and received my copy in June. Derick and I were friends once while in graduate school together at Kansas State. I continue to follow his career even though we no longer talk or exchange letters. // I picked up a copy of Paul Zimmer's Family Reunion when I was browsing at Half Price Books in Lawrence, Kansas. I already have his Crossing to Sunlight. Even though Family Reunion is an earlier collection of selected poems, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get another book by Paul Zimmer. // therwise, I ordered B.H. Fairchild's The Art of the Lathe, The Arrival of the Future, and Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest from Amazon and got all three books at a reduced price by purchasing used copies. I had read these books before by having ordered them through interlibrary loan, but I decided to purchase them earlier this year because I remembered to and because his poems often deal with his life in Kansas. It seemed important to obtain the books of a poet who identifies with the region where I Iive. // I didn't purchase any books of poems by women this year. That fact doesn't mean I don't read poems by women. When I was working as a judge for the Bluestem Press, I selected books by Deborah Gregor, Sherry Fairchok, Sheryl Luna, and Virgina Chase Sutton, all of whom had their books published elsewhere. The judge during those years apparently didn't agree with my choices.
Kelli Agodon:

Hardscrabble, Kevin McFadden
Unmentionables, Beth Ann Fennelly
2 Lorna Crozier books
Mary Oliver's new and selected
Lia Purpura's King Baby
duende by Tracy K Smith
Meaning a Cloud by JW Marshall
Joannie Stangeland's chapbook

For gifts--

Cures Include Travel Susan Rich
Blue Positive Martha Silano

There was more, these are what I remember...
Aileen Ibardaloza: Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes, I Know why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and Rappin' with Ten Thousand Carabaos in the Dark by Al Robles
Reb Livingston: I'm not sure if this is a complete list, to the best of my recollection:

Open House, by Hannah Weiner
When I said Goodbye, by Didi Menendez
Romance of Happy Workers, by Anne Boyer
Necropolis, by Jill Alexander Essbaum
Irresponsibility by Chris Vitiello
Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East,
Asia, and Beyond byTina Chang (Editor), Ravi Shankar (Editor),
Nathalie Handal (Editor)
Reptile House by Lisa Jarnot
From the Beginning by Alice Notley
Awe, by Dorthea Lasky
Talk Poetry by Mairead Byrne
Radish King by Rebecca Loudon
Bone Pagoda by Susan Tichey
The Totality for Kids by Joshua Clover
Necessary Stranger by Graham Foust
Folly, by Nada Gordon
Wicked, Excellently by Brent Terry
[one love affair] by Jenny Boully
F2F by Janet Holmes
Document by Ana Bozicevic-Bowling
Figures for a Darkroom Voice by Noah Eli Gordon, Joshua Marie Wilkinson,
Notes for My Body Double by Paul Guest
Gone by Fanny Howe
Bliss to Fill by Prageeta Sharma
Borrowed, Love Poems by John Yau
The Stunt Double in Winter by Robyn Art
Birds and Fancies by Elizabeth Treadwell
Sappho: A New Translation
The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan
The Name Encanyoned River: Selected Poems 1960-1985 by Clayton Eshleman

Ed Baker: I bought a book in 1999, Carl Rakosi's THE OLD POET'S TALE // and since then,

Whalen's OVERTURE
Hilda moreley's CLOUDLESS AT FIRST
Kyger's JUST SPACE
Micheline's RIVER OF RED WINE (Harvey is a distant cousin)
Bob Kaufman's THE ANCIENT RAIN

I also just bought 20 copies of my own book (as we speak at publisher's printer), RESTORATION POEMS (http://edbaker.maikosoft.com) // and ALL purchases made via my monthly Social Security check ($400!)
Carter Monroe: All were books of poetry as such, with the exception of about three books of criticism/biography such as David Lehman's "The Last Avant-Garde." None were journals, magazines, or random mixed collections.


3) If you have bought a poetry publication, how did it/they come to your attention?
Ernesto Priego: Browsing in book shops. Also through friends’ recommendations. (Ivy Alvarez told me about The Wolf, I think.)
Barbara Jane Reyes: always known of and am now catching up on my ginsberg
Miguel Syjuco: I tend to buy those names I already know, or of people I know personally. I admit that I am wary. I read a lot of stuff I hate in magazines and lit journals, so I am afraid of spending my scarce money on poetry collections that I may not like. I tend to stick to work that has already been vouched for by history, critics, or friends who know. // Hope this helps! Sorry for my troglodyte confessions!
Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor: I wanted to read Alexie's poetry and I chose BFD over his other collections because of the movie, and the anthology was recommended to me for my daughter to read. The anthology has poems about love and relationships from both the girl and boy POVs and the bookseller thought it was a good step beyond the Shel Silverstein series. // Sadly, with my current studies in Children's Lit writing, I don't have occasion to buy poetry like before
ANONYMOUS #1: Different ways.
Becca: I usually find out about new books online (blogs, SPD bestseller list, GoodReads, listservs like Pussipo), or simply by keeping tabs on what my favorite poets/presses are up to. // I know way too many poets who never buy books of poems, or who feel too overwhelmed to start digging through SPD to acquaint themselves with what smaller presses are producing. But I think most of these people, if they don't want to spend money, do want to learn about books that are inaccessible to them via Borders/B&N/Amazon.
John Bloomberg-Rissman: Mostly word of mouth, SPD catalog, author’s rep, ownership of previous publications by same author, because the author’s a friend, or a friend of a friend, etc. In no particular order. Rarely because of reviews, except of course, reviews at Galatea Resurrects. And bought books from BlazeVOX's Bake Sale as "can't let a good press go down"...
Crag Hill: I have about three dozen poets I'll buy/read every book they've done (I rarely read reviews anymore, though I read a ton about poetry on blogs). When I go to a bookstore like Powell's in Portland, I'll pick up a book or two from poets whose work I've seen in zines or on-line over the years but haven't read a book from yet (Gizzi's The Outernationale). I've also been re-acquiring books that kicked my ass 20-30 years ago (e.g. Dorn's Slinger).
Bino A. Realuyo: NA
K. Silem Mohammad: Through various forms of word of mouth, usually web announcements.
Logan Ryan Smith: Mostly thru friends and blogs.
Chris Stroffolino: this may change, i hope
ANONYMOUS #2: I usually buy because I've either read something in a journal that intrigued me, I picked up a book off the shelf and it intrigued me, or I've just had some interest in checking out that poet for a while.
Michael Wells: In some instances I attended readings of a poet that I learned was featured in an upcoming issue. Poetry Magazine I bought off a magazine rack after seeing who was in a particular issue. Court Green I bought because of a theme I heard about on the Internet, but mostly I;ve bought them because of someone featured in them. On Books:

Migration - W.S. Merwin - bought in part because of review - but also because I particularly like Merwin's work.

Later - Cecilia Woloch - Bought largely because I had read poetry she wrote online and liked it

What is This Thing Called Love - Kim Addonizio - Bought at a reading of hers

Small Knots - Kelli Russell Agodon - Bought because of internet contact with poet

Honey and Junk - Dana Goodyear - Had read about her in Poets & Writers - went to a reading of her's and bought book

Where Shall I Wonder - John Ashbery - Saw it at the Bookstore, it was Ashbery, did I need another reason? ;)

The Poet's Notebook: Excerpts from the Notebooks of Contemporary American Poets (Paperback) - David Weiss - Bought after reading about it on Internet.

Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words (Paperback) - Bought on impulse

The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (Paperback) - Kim Addonizio - Bought at Reading

ANONYMOUS #3: Word of mouth (publications by peers), recommendation
Jordan Stempleman: I am finding many, many things that I need to read on Goodreads, trolling my friends bookshelves. I also find quite a few books from reading blogs, and picking up a copy of Rain Taxi, or any of the other publications that print book reviews--Jacket, Galatea Resurrects, Constant Critic, etc.
ANONYMOUS #4: I buy books at readings I attend, through small press' websites (that I check regularly for updates, or sometimes via links from email blasts), through Small Press Distribution (sign up for their newsletter!), and from used book stores. I used to purchase new books from my local, non-chain, independent bookseller, but the only worthwhile store that fits that description here in my new hometown of Chicago is Seminary Co-op, and that's very difficult for me to reach with any regularity. I almost invariably purchase several books from Bridge Street Books in Washington D.C. via mailorder when prompted by their regular email blasts. When I lived near Ann Arbor, I would try to purchase from Shaman Drum, but their selection was and apparently remains mediocre. Talking Leaves in Buffalo was much better, as was Prairie Lights in Iowa City. When I lived in Berkeley, CA, I had the great advantage of browsing the SPD warehouse shelves. If I may take this opportunity to encourage everyone reading this who feels underserved by indie booksellers to buy directly from presses--especially if they offer subscriptions--or from SPD. If you buy from Amazon, Borders, or Barnes and Noble, you are not only constricting your access to poetry of certain usually bland stripes but you are also doing possible damage to the presses you are ostensibly supporting with your purchase (due to enforced high overhead costs which trickle down to the publishers).
ANONYMOUS #5: I gave all my Will Alexander books to another poet who did not return them.
ANONYMOUS #6: Blog references, Review references, Library meanderings, Personal discovery online, etc. etc.
Bruce Covey: SPD catalogue, AWP, blogs, email, postcards, announcements from friends, facebook, goodreads, reviews, etc.
Claudia Carlson: See #2
ANONYMOUS #7: blogs, listserves, poetry reviews
ANONYMOUS #8: I read the authors work on online journals, or I know the author, or I am a fan of the press, or I wanted to know more about the press before I submitted work to them. Also, of course, to support small presses.
Steffen Brown: I keep an eye out for people i like. i subscribe to presses that continually put out great work. i read blogs and check out review sites like http://cutbankpoetry.blogspot.com/ and silliman, etc.
Jesse Glass: Bookstores, Amazon
Andrea Baker: William Blake: The Complete Illuminated Books. Selected Poems of Rene Char. Both of these are from talking to Matthew Henriksen. // At AWP I purchased Grossman’s Descartes Loneliness (I like Grossman who Matt also turned me onto), Awe by Dorothea Lasky (hard to know what the origin of the buzz about that book was: readings/seeing poems/her “tour”....), and a New Directions book of spiritually oriented writing (because it’s an interest of mine)... I don’t remember what else. // Bookstore purchases are generally contemporary poets whose work I’ve seen in journals but I’m not sure exactly what I’ve bought.... Certainly much less than normal as I’m getting a philosophy/religious studies degree and most of my reading has been in that direction. (And I’ve been obsessed with Rilke so never feel I really need a new book to satisfy me.) // Oh, and I know I ordered Max Winter’s book from Tarpaulin Sky Press book after hearing him read.
ANONYMOUS #9: See Answers 1 and 2.
Mark Young: See #2
ANONYMOUS #10: Again-over 12 months ago, but the poet read at the Carmel author event last year
ANONYMOUS #11: Landfall – a friend was in it. Contemporary Poets - I read a good review of it. Imago and Mercurius – a friend wrote them
J.P. Dizon: Referred to me, some I just picked up by random I suppose in bookstores
Joel: Website reviews, editorial picks, author's websites, etc...
ANONYMOUS 11B: usually because I know someone involved or know someone who knows someone involved. sometimes through a review.
Catherine Wagner: Blogs; encountering the publication at a reading or festival or conference; word of mouth; ads (these only work if I am already a fan of the poet)
ANONYMOUS #12: Often, i am guided by chance browsings at the local indie bookshops -- itsa satisfying rush to have that rare moment: "holy shit! they gotta book by ___________ !"
Richard Lopez: from browsing the stacks at local bookstores, or trips to moe's in berkeley, or reading a review then looking for the book online, or going thru the spd catalog like a kid eyeballing the toys in the toys r us xmas wishbook, or every permutation of search inbetween.
ANONYMOUS #13:
1. Blog
2. I had previously owned it
3. Saw it at the bookstore
Guillermo Parra: A friend of mine recommended Miguel James to me years ago, and I came across this new edition of his work at a bookstore in Caracas last month.
Dan Waber: Lots of ways. Browsing bookshops, at small press book fairs, the new books of people whose work I know and like, visiting other small presses and finding books they're publishing that I'm interested in, I collect the work of a hugely prolific poet, visiting the homes of other poets and looking through their books and listening to their recommendations, recommendations from others. I will say this (sorry), I've never purchased a book because of a review I read or because of the blurb on the back.
Tom Beckett: I actively seek out books. I regularly read reviews. I regularly explore new and used brick and mortar bookstores. Online bookstores and blogs are also great resources. If I like a writer, I try to read everything they do. I'm also constantly looking for what's new and innovative.
V. Ponka: Read about online, for the most part… But many of the above books are classics that I have been wanting to pick up for a long time.
Lars Palm: in all manner of ways
Lee Herrick: From the authors themselves, other friends' recommendations, online or print magazines.
Geof Huth: For some of these books, I’ve no idea how I first heard of them. They are part of my psyche now, and I just needed to buy them. // The Redfoxpress books I learned about first by finding a few of the titles at Printed Matter in New York City, but now I subscribe to their “C’est mon dada” series. // Some books (the first Creeley Collected, the Oppen, the Olson, the Silliman) I’ve been looking for in bookstores for a while, but only the Olson showed up in a bookstore. The others I had to purchase online. // I learned of some of these books (Vengua, the Everson Rabbit book) via blog postings. // Some I purchased almost for a lark (the Ryan, having graduated from a high school named after him; the Longfellow, deciding I should give this guy a chance; the Wolfe, since the queer found poetry aspect of this interests me and since Wolfe was important to me in my adolescence). // Most books I found by chance by checking the poetry sections of used and new bookstores. A few are from poets I’m unfamiliar with. And I’ve begun a practice of purchased collected poems by almost anyone when I run across them. That way I can learn a lot about individual poets and move on, without overworrying about what of their work I may have missed. // As a poet, I believe that purchasing books of poetry is a requirement of life, a pact I’ve made with other poets.
Burt Kimmelman: The authors made me aware of these books or had me on mailing lists that publishers used.
Marcella Durand: Chance operations, mostly--spotting them at a used bookstore or writers' event such as AWP or Naropa--and "must having them." Then, for the others, reading a good review or hearing from other writers.
Anthony Robinson: I think I just have my ear to the ground.
Anny Ballardini: I could copy Tom [Beckett]’s answer here. I am also influenced by what other people are reading, what they advise. One book leads to all the books written by an Author, and then to his favorites, and then to those who influenced him/her and the ones influenced by him/her and then and then…
It is a never-ending exponential process, and well, you will have to deal with it.
Jonathan Cohen: I got some of them because I saw them on Ron Silliman's or Mark Scroggins's blogs. Others, like the Traherne and the Swinburne, I heard of independently.
Remy: Most were from browsing used bookstores, I'll buy most anything if its under four dollars (re: Tess Gallagher, Sound & Form). Others came from word of mouth or from the trades (Nurkse, Van Winckel), I'm distantly related to Brooks Haxton. Graham and Lux weedled a gift certificate from me. I translate Neruda. Who doesn't buy a well priced Frost, Milosz, Hopkins, or WCW? I moved from two favorites Kevin Young and Aimee Nez to Mackey and Derricotte and Dhompa respectively.
Tess Crescini: (No Answer)
Rhodora: anthologies, Poets & Writers, reluctantly walking into a bookstore when I mean to shop for other things ( browsing in the Poetry corner.)
ANONYMOUS #14: I bought them while attending readings, and in the case of Whalen, I read a review, and purchased it from Amazon.com
Rebecca Loudon: I buy Tin House when I can because I love the fiction in it, and the independent bookstore near my house carries it. I bought The Believer because someone I know had a piece in it. I have a subscription to Forklift Ohio, it’s my favorite journal. I bought Matuk’s book because I read a poem of his online and loved it. I bought Lungfull! Because there is an ad in it for my forthcoming book. I bought Amy Gerstler’s book because a friend loaned me a copy of Ghost Girl and I fell in love and when I fall in love with a poet, I have to read everything they’ve written. Same with Cal Bedient. I bought some books that John Marshall at Open Books recommended to me and he is always good at that. The other books were impulse buys, usually because someone gave me a gift card. There have been many more, and I’m sorry to say I can’t remember them all. But books come to my attention when I see them at my favorite independent bookstore, when they come highly recommended by a friend, or when I read poems by poets online that I love. I don't have enough money to buy a book a friend publishes just because I love that person. I have to really pick and choose what I buy based on the poems themselves. I wish I had enough loose cash to buy every book every blogger I know publishes, but that time has not yet come for me.
Ross: Recommendations, reading about them on the web, and print book reviews all play in.
Vangie Buell: Al Young is a long time friend..and I have collected his works for many years. He wrote a blurb for my book "Twenty five Chickens and Pig for a Bride".
ANONYMOUS #15: Friends, Surfing blogs, reading the Amazon top 100 poetry books list.
James Cooper: See No. 2
Kelli Agodon: Most are from poems I read online then googled to the poet to see if I liked more of their work, then I bought their book. // Others are from readings.
Aileen Ibardaloza: The 'Bargain-priced' section at B&N and Poetry readings
Reb Livingston: Too many ways to include here. Followed people's work, followed what a press publishes, read reviews, recommended by friends, saw on a bookstore shelf, saw on goodreads, etc. // Like you, I get a lot of books sent to me or trade.
Ed Baker: See #2
Carter Monroe: I have a mentality that, for lack of a better term, logically connects. At least that's what I "think" happens. It goes back to reading "Trout Fishing in America" back in 1971 and noting that Brautigan dedicated the book to Jack Spicer. It was like I had to know who Jack Spicer was. One thing always seems to lead to another. It's the same with music. I could hear what I thought to be a great pianist on an album/cassette/cd and at some point down the road when the man/woman ceased to be a sideman and had his/her own production, I'd buy it. Plus, I tend to explore and define "movements" in depth. I search for the answers to questions like, "What constitutes a first generation member of The New York or Black Mountain Schools."

I see a great number of books I want to buy in such places as the introductions to other books or even specific poem dedications. In short, I simply want "to know." Also, I seem to have the ability to totally separate the dancer from the dance. A poet on a blog might render an opinion that I think is total trash, but that doesn't deter me from buying his/her work and doesn't affect my opinion of it. Virtually all readers of poetry tend to abuse verbosity when the end result almost always boils down to "like/don't like."

I "will" render a very rare opinion in this answer that would likely rattle a few heads. I firmly believe that history names its movements. I think that to label and describe such things in process is like someone once said about Wynton Marsalis. "He needs to quit working to define his place in jazz history and just play."