Public Libraries of Suffolk County, New York

The best of the best American poetry, 25th anniversary edition, Robert Pinsky, editor ; David Lehman, series editor

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-322)

no index present

poetry

The best of the best American poetry

dictionaries

Robert Pinsky, editor ; David Lehman, series editor

25th anniversary edition

This special edition celebrates twenty-five years of the Best American Poetry series, which has become an institution. From its inception in 1988, it has been hotly debated, keenly monitored, ardently advocated (or denounced), and obsessively scrutinized. Each volume consists of seventy-five poems chosen by a major American poet acting as guest editor from John Ashbery in 1988 to Mark Doty in 2012, with stops along the way for such poets as Charles Simic, A.R. Ammons, Louise Glück, Adrienne Rich, Billy Collins, Heather McHugh, and Kevin Young. Out of the 1,875 poems that have appeared in The Best American Poetry , here are 100 that Robert Pinsky, the distinguished poet and man of letters, has chosen for this milestone edition

Terminal nostalgia / Sherman Alexie -- Garbage / A.R. Ammons -- Soft money / Rae Armantrout -- Wakefulness / John Ashbery -- Bored / Margaret Atwood -- Injunction / Frank Bidart -- Feminine intuition / Stephanie Brown -- Three oranges / Charles Bukowski -- The life of towns / Anne Carson -- Self-portrait as four styles of Pompeian wall painting / Henri Cole -- Dharma / Billy Collins -- En famille / Robert Creeley -- You art a scholar, Horatio, speak to it / Olena Kalytiak Davis -- Our generation / Carl Dennis -- Skin / Susan Dickman -- Desire / Stephen Dobyns -- Difference / Mark Doty -- All souls' / Rita Dove -- How it will end / Denise Duhamel -- The imagine / Stephen Dunn -- Powers of Congress / Alice Fulton -- Salutations to Fernando Pessoa / Allen Ginsberg -- Landscape / Louise Glück -- Manifest destiny / Jorie Graham -- Safe / Linda Gregerson -- The war / Linda Gregg -- Cafeteria in Boston / Thom Gunn -- Prophecy / Donald Hall -- The opaque / Mark Halliday -- Bush's war / Robert Hass -- A house is not a home / Terrance Hayes -- The polar circle / Lyn Hejinian -- Having intended to merely pick on an oil company, the poem goes awry / Bob Hicok -- Phone booth / Brenda Hillman -- Man on a fire escape / Edward Hirsch -- In praise of coldness / Jane Hirshfield -- In a quiet town by the sea / Tony Hoagland -- The see-saw / John Hollander -- Like most revelations / Richard Howard -- 9-11-01 / Fanny Howe -- Magdalene-- the seven devils / Marie Howe -- From Urban renewal / Major Jackson -- Plea for forgiveness / Rodney Jones -- So where are we? / Lawrence Joseph -- Reading aloud to my father / Jane Kenyon -- Proverb / Kenneth Koch -- Sally's hair / John Koethe -- Facing it / Yusef Komunyakaa -- Touch me / Stanley Kunitz -- Operation memory / David Lehman -- The return / Philip Levine -- The autobiography of Khwaja Mustasim / Amit Majmudar -- Hell / Sarah Manguso -- My mammogram / J.D. McClatchy -- Past all understanding / Heather McHugh -- From The person she is / James McMichael -- The 'ring' cycle / James Merrill -- The stranger / W.S. Merwin -- There will be animals / Thylias Moss -- The loaf / Paul Muldoon -- From Muse & drudge / Harryette Mullen -- Hate mail / Carol Muske-Dukes -- Q / Sharon Olds -- The window at Arles / Meghan O'Rourke -- I do not / Michael Palmer -- Fretwork / Carl Phillips -- Samurai song / Robert Pinsky -- A short narrative of breasts and wombs in service of plot entitled / Claudia Rankine -- Ends of the earth / Adrienne Rich -- The Rev. Larry Love is dead / David Rivard -- Discounting Lynn / J. Allyn Rosser -- Middle school / Mary Ruefle -- Outsider art / Kay Ryan -- Switchblade / Michael Ryan -- Let's all hear it for Mildred Bailey! / James Schuyler -- Pornography / Lloyd Schwartz -- The death of the shah / Frederick Seidel --- Country western singer / Alan Shapiro -- At the pool / Tom Sleigh -- Building / Gary Snyder -- Asphodel / A.E. Stallings -- The latest hotel guest walks over particles that revolve in seven other dimensions controlling latticed space / Ruth Stone -- From Dark harbor / Mark Strand -- Forty / Pamela Sutton -- Bounden duty / James Tate -- Elegy / Natasha Trethewey -- Counterman / Paul Violi -- Necrophiliac / Rosanna Warren -- Time pieces / Rachel Wetzsteon -- A filial republic / Susan Wheeler --- This pleasing anxious being / Richard Wilbur -- A hundred bones / C.K. Williams -- The mill-race / Anne Winters -- American twilight / Charles Wright -- A happy thought / Franz Wright -- Religion / Robert Wrigley -- Vespers / C. Dale Young -- No forgiveness ode / Dean Young -- Lime light blues / Kevin Young