First published in 1967, this revised and expanded third edition of Jerome Rothenberg’s groundbreaking anthology includes newly gathered and translated texts, further expanding this collection of global poetry. The over four hundred poems move across time and continents, from “primitive” and archaic spiritual works to avant-garde and experimental poetry. Over the decades, the book continues to inspire generations of poets, artists, musicians, and readers. Anne Waldman calls the volume “a seminal world wisdom text, a vibrating compendium of poetry and exegesis that reanimates poetry’s efficacy in the world.” In the preface to this edition, Rothenberg addresses the current divisions in the world and emphasizes the vital importance of preserving these texts and languages so that they are not lost. He writes, “To confront this implicit, sometimes rampant ethnic cleansing, even genocide, there is the need for a kind of omnipoetics that test the range of our threatened humanities wherever found & looks toward an ever greater assemblage of words & thoughts as a singular buttress against those forces that would divide & diminish us.”
