First Loves: Poets Introduce the Essential Poems That Captivated and Inspired Them.Edited by Carmela Ciuraru. Scribner, 2000.

These recording are based on Carmela Ciuraru's book First Loves. In this collection she assembles the "first loves" of sixty-eight poets. She asked each poet to answer a question she had often asked herself--"What poem has haunted you, provoked you, obsessed you, made you want to speak back to it? Not an easy question to answer, but one, I soon learned, in which people seemed to enjoy immersing themselves." What she found is that each poet attached a different meaning to their "first love." She found that for each poet, "Each journey is unique: Some used poetry as a means of working through grief; others found their erotic yearnings expressed or sought refuge from chaotic households. Regardless of how their commitment to verse began, these poets all encountered particular poems that captivated them--and led them, eventually, to write."

Read a review of the book from Salon.com.