It's the most wonderful time of the year -- Shark Week!

I love this venerable Discovery Channel tradition. Anything that involves the phrase "frenzied waters" is pretty much a sure thing in my book. Shark specials! Shark news! Why sharks are like serial killers!

Hell yeah!

And lest you think they are not sufficiently badass, the  Academy of American Poets is paying their own homage to the beasts of the sea, with a roundup of the finest shark related poetry ever put to pen, with appearances by Carl Sandburg, Walt Whitman, James Dickey, and other literary heavyweights.

The poems range from the literal to the metaphoric to the downright fanciful (Vivian Shipley's What To Do About Sharks details what to do "if a hammerhead or a great white makes waves during your workshop or poetry reading"). I find the whole shebang charming.

The pen is mightier than the sword, but how would it hold up against Jaws?