This is it, *the* VIPick List of the top dozen single-author single-volume works published during The Doughty Noughties (1999-2009) in the order of votes received for each. Some fine collections — John Donlan's Spirit Engine, Anne Carson's If Not, Winter, Robin Blaser's The Holy Forest, Daphne Marlatt's This Tremor Love Is, A. F. Moritz's The Sentinel, Fred Wah's is a door and Listening by Margaret Avison, e.g. — didn't quite receive enough votes to boost their books onto the main VIPicks; but, because they did receive more than one vote, they are fine up-runners all, IMO.
Take it away, Eric, the Orchestra Leader . . . A one . . . two . . . A one . . . two . . . three . . . four . . .
Book of Longing, Leonard Cohen, McClelland & Stewart, 2006
The Selected Gwendolyn MacEwen, Exile Editions, 2008
The Lost Leader, Mick Imlah, Faber & Faber, 2008
The Collected Poems of Philip Larkin, edited by Anthony Thwaite, Faber & Faber, 2003
Sleeping with the Dictionary, Harryette Mullen, University of California Press, 2002
C. P. Cavafy, Collected Poems, translated by Daniel Mendelsohn, Knopf, 2009
The Selected Poems of Geoffrey Hill, Yale University Press, 2009
O Cadoiro, Erin Mouré, Anansi, 2007
Corpus, Michael Symmons Roberts, Jonathan Cape, 2004
Sleeping It Off in Rapid City, August Kleinzahler, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008
Joy Is So Exhausting, Susan Holbrook, Coach House, 2009
Swithering, Robin Robertson, Picador, 2006
p.s. Thank you, those of you who nominated single volumes from my Adagios Quartet. FWIW, Orestes' Lament garnered the most votes and O, Clytaemnestra! came second while Iphigenia's Song tied with Electra's Benison for third place; but, all were disqualified because I am the keeper of the VIPicker List, eh? Muchas gracias, anyways. Each vote really made my daze
p.p.s. We at "In Other Words" and Globe Books send Leonard Cohen heartfelt healing wishes his bad-back sojourn doesn't last long and physiotherapy for that compression injury works wonders on Our Normally Skipping Man (whose 15-stop 2010 European tour, originally skedded to commence next month, will now rev up Sept. 15 in Caen, France. JSYK)
Artwork caption: Nightingale, both image and poem © 2006-2010 Leonard Cohen. All Rights Reserved. Used by written permission.
