_Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong_, translated by John Balaban ($15, Copper Canyon). Not only does this book give us the daring, often erotic poems of an 18th century Vietnamese concubine, but it does so in both English and the original Nom, a nearly extinct ideographic script. Indeed, this is the first book in which Nom has been printed using moveable type. A remarkable literary and historical achievement.

_Climbing Back_, Dionisio D. Martinez ($22, Norton). Chosen by Jorie Graham for the National Poetry Series, this collection of surreal, rich, yet plain-spoken prose poems takes the Prodigal Son as its engine to motor through American culture.

_Your Name Here_, John Ashbery ($23, FSG). Please don't be afraid of Mr. Ashbery. (Doesn't that sound like one of his lines?) His work is playful, charming, sometimes melancholy, always dream-logical, and is a sparkling ticket for admission. Those lucky folks who heard him read last year will recognize a number of these pieces.

_Murano_, Mark Doty ($14.95, J. Paul Getty Museum). Doty's graceful, elegiac poem, first printed in _Sweet Machine_, is surrounded by photos of Venetian glass in this beautiful gift edition.

_The Throne of Labdacus_ ($23, FSG) and _Supernatural Love: Poems 1976-1992_ ($19, FSG), Gertrude Schnackenberg. The first of these is a book-length poem that both retells the tragedy of Oedipus and envisions Apollo's role in the production of Sophocles's play. Schnackenberg's incredible poetic skill lets her rise easily to the challenge. Those of you not familiar with her earlier work (or who have been seeking what was out of print) will welcome the generous selection in the second book.

_The Selected Levis_, Larry Levis ($22.50, University of Pittsburgh). Editor David St. John has drawn from Levis's first five books for this volume of his "gracefully conversational" poems. St. John's afterword captures the essence of the man and his work - work that reflected his belief in "the simple dignity of human beings," despite our cruelties and our inevitable fate.

_Ravishing Disunities: Real Ghazals in English_, edited by Agha Shahid Ali ($14.95, Wesleyan). Westerners for years wrote the ghazal, an ancient Persian form, as simply a series of unrelated couplets. Ali single-handedly brought the intricacies of the form to the West. Here are 149 pages of correct (some nearly correct) ghazals written by well-known and unknown poets in English. Certainly some are better than others, but reading the form in so many varieties is mesmerizing. And Ali's introduction and list of "Basic Points About the Ghazal" present an extremely witty and delightful education.