Poems for Life: Celebrities Choose Their Favorite Poem and Say Why It Inspires Them

When a group of fifth-grade students asked fifty celebrities what their favorite poem was and why, the answers they received became a beautiful collection of some the world's most beloved poems, from classic to modern, that continues to offer inspiration, solace, wisdom, and amusement. Each poem is accompanied by the celebrity's brief letter explaining why they chose it and its resonance for them.

Among the celebrities are Yo-Yo Ma, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen Sondheim, Allen Ginsberg, Angela Lansbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Harolyn Blackwell, Isabella Rossellini, Bill Irwin, E. L. Doctorow, David Mamet, Elie Wiesel, Ally Sheedy, Ved Mehta, Tom Wolfe, David Dinkins, and Susan Minot. The poets include Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot, Alice Walker, Mary Oliver, Frank O'Hara, Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, W. B. Yeats. and John Keats--not to mention Noel Coward and a ditty by David Mamet himself! Anna Quindlen and verse from Pulitzer Prize-winner Yusef Komunyakaa provide a thoughtful introduction.

Royalties from this collection have been donated to charity since its original publication.