Anthology Review: Poems United

Expansive poetry anthologies are difficult to get right, but two of my favourites from the past have spanned the globe and managed the trick. Jerome Rothenberg's ground-breaking Technicians of the Sacred, published in the late 60s and The Penguin Book of Oral Poetry from the 70s both gathered poetry from the cultures of all continents, including invocations, spells, celebrations, curses and lyrics.

A new book from Black & White, published in association with the Scottish Poetry Library, is a similar round-the-world trip. Aimed at the 10-14 age group, Poems United contains one poem from each of the countries of the Commonwealth, from large nations such as Nigeria, Canada and India to tiny ones such as Tuvalu and Gibraltar.

Editors Diana Hendry and Hamish Whyte have made lively and diverse choices and avoided the worthy and preachy work which is often spoon-fed to young people in the name of internationalism. The poems range from big names (Heaney, Walcott, Murray, Atwood) to little-known writers and to children themselves, with plenty of room for that old favourite Anon. Accompanying the poems are some facts, figures and trivia on each of the countries represented. The book is colourfully designed by Iain McIntosh, who is also responsible for Alexander McCall Smith's jazzy book artwork.

Apart from Edwin Morgan's much anthologised 'Canedolia', all the poems here were new to me. Given the high number of island countries, the sea – as provider, and as danger - figures prominently, especially in the poems from Oceania and the Caribbean. The editors have included animal and bird poems and many of the sparky, scurrilous poems which young readers find funny, but have also included some more considered, stranger pieces such as UA Fanthorpe's 'Earthed' and Archie Markham's eerie 'The Boy of the House'.

It's heartening to find several poems which are grounded in oral traditions and folklore, my favourites being a curse poem from Tanzania aimed at those who overstay their welcome, and 'Rum Jumbee' by Patricia J Adams, in which a ghost complains that electric light has made 'life' difficult for his kind. Poems United is a fine and varied selection which achieves its aims with levity and I hope it finds its way into the hands of many young readers.