The Best American Poetry 2010

Series Editor David Lehman

Amy Gerstler, David Lehman, Amy Gerstler, David Lehman

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9781439181454
• eBook ISBN:
  9781439181485
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

AMY GERSTLER’S COMMITMENT TO INNOVATIVE POETRY that conveys meaning, feeling, wit, and humor informs the cross section of poems in the 2010 edition of The Best American Poetry. The works collected here represent the wealth, the breadth, and the tremendous energy of poetry in the United States today. Featuring poems from some of our country’s top bards, including John Ashbery, Anne Carson, Louise Glück, Sharon Olds, and Charles Simic, The Best American Poetry 2010 also presents poems that poignantly capture the current moment, such as the sonnets John Updike wrote to chronicle his dying weeks. And there are exciting poems from a constellation of rising stars: Bob Hicok, Terrance Hayes, Denise Duhamel, Dean Young, and Elaine Equi, to name a very few.

The anthology’s mainstays are in place: It opens with series editor David Lehman’s incisive foreword about the state of American poetry and has a marvelous introduction by Amy Gerstler. Notes from the poets, illuminating their poems and their writing processes, conclude this delightful addition to a classic series.

Dick Allen * John Ashbery * Sandra Beasley * Mark Bibbins * Todd Boss * Fleda Brown * Anne Carson * Tom Clark * David Clewell * Michael Collier * Billy Collins * Dennis Cooper * Kate Daniels * Peter Davis * Tim Dlugos * Denise Duhamel * Thomas Sayers Ellis * Lynn Emanuel * Elaine Equi * Jill Alexander Essbaum * B. H. Fairchild * Vievee Francis * Louise Glück * Albert Goldbarth * Amy Glynn Greacen * Sonia Greenfield * Kelle Groom * Gabriel Gudding * Kimiko Hahn * Barbara Hamby * Terrance Hayes * Bob Hicok * Rodney Jones * Michaela Kahn * Brigit Pegeen Kelly * Corinne Lee * Hailey Leithauser * Dolly Lemke * Maurice Manning * Adrian Matejka * Shane McCrae * Jeffrey McDaniel * W. S. Merwin * Sarah Murphy * Eileen Myles * Camille Norton * Alice Notley * Sharon Olds * Gregory Pardlo * Lucia Perillo * Carl Phillips * Adrienne Rich * James Richardson * J. Allyn Rosser * James Schuyler * Tim Seibles * David Shapiro * Charles Simic * Frank Stanford * Gerald Stern * Stephen Campbell Sutherland * James Tate * David Trinidad * Chase Twichell * John Updike * Derek Walcott * G. C. Waldrep * J. E. Wei * Dara Wier * Terence Winch * Catherine Wing * Mark Wunderlich * Matthew Yeager * Dean Young * Kevin Young

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Dick Allen: What You Have to Get Over
• John Ashbery: Alcove
• Sandra Beasley: Unit of Measure
• Mark Bibbins: The Devil You Don’t
• Todd Boss: My Dog Has No Nose
• Fleda Brown: The Dead
• Anne Carson: Wildly Constant
• Tom Clark: Fidelity
• David Clewell: This Poem Had Better Be About the World We Actually Live In
• Michael Collier: An Individual History
• Billy Collins: Grave
• Dennis Cooper: Ugly Man
• Kate Daniels: From “A Walk in Victoria’s Secret”
• Peter Davis: Four “Addresses”
• Tim Dlugos: Come in from the Rain
• Denise Duhamel: Play
• Thomas Sayers Ellis: Presidential Blackness
• Lynn Emanuel: Dear Final Journey,
• Elaine Equi: What is It About Hands?
• Jill Alexander Essbaum: Apologia
• B.H. Fairchild: On the Waterfront
• Vievee Francis: Smoke under the Bale
• Louise Glück: At the River
• Albert Goldbarth: What’s Left
• Amy Glynn Greacen: Namaskar
• Sonia Greenfield: Passing the Barnyard Graveyard
• Kelle Groom: Oh dont
• Gabriel Gudding: And What, Friends, Is Called a Road?
• Kimiko Hahn: The Poetic Memoirs of Lady Daibu
• Barbara Hamby: Five “Lingo Sonnets”
• Terrance Hayes: I Just Want to Look
• Bob Hicok: The Cunning Optimism of Language
• Rodney Jones: North Alabama Endtime
• Michaela Kahn: If I ring my body like a bell of coins, will the shock waves of that sound cause oil rigs & volcanoes to erupt?
• Brigit Pegeen Kelly: Rome
• Corinne Lee: Six from “Birds of Self-Knowledge”
• Hailey Leithauser: The Old Woman Gets Drunk with the Moon
• Dolly Lemke: I never went to that movie at 12:45
• Maurice Manning: A Man with a Rooster in His Dream
• Adrian Matejka: Seven Days of Falling
• Shane Mccrae: Pietà
• Jeffrey Mcdaniel: The Grudge
• W S Merwin: Identity
• Sarah Murphy: Letter to the Past after Long Silence
• Eileen Myles: The Perfect Faceless Fish
• Camille Norton: The Prison Diary of Bartlett Yancey Malone
• Alice Notley: From Eurynome’s Sandals
• Sharon Olds: Q
• Gregory Pardlo: Written by Himself
• Lucia Perillo: Inseminating the Elephant
• Carl Phillips: Heaven and Earth
• Adrienne Rich: Domain
• James Richardson: Vectors 2.3: Fifty Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays
• J. Allyn Rosser: Children’s Children Speech
• James Schuyler: Having My Say-So
• Tim Seibles: Allison Wolff
• David Shapiro: A Visit
• Charles Simic: Carrying on like a Crow
• Frank Stanford: Blue Yodel of Those Who Were Always Telling Me
• Gerald Stern: Stoop
• Stephen Campbell Sutherland: SATs
• James Tate: Depression
• David Trinidad: Black Telephone
• Chase Twichell: The Dark Rides
• John Updike: Peggy Lutz, Fred Muth 12/13/08
• Derek Walcott: 21
• G C Waldrep: Their Faces Shall Be as Flames
• J. E. Wei: In the Field
• Dara Wier: Something for You Because You Have Been Gone
• Terence Winch: Objects of Spiritual Significance
• Catherine Wing: The Darker Sooner
• Mark Wunderlich: Coyote, with Mange
• Matthew Yeager: From “A Jar of Balloons, or The Uncooked Rice”
• Dean Young: Off the Hook Ode
• Kevin Young: Lime Light Blues
• Contributors’ Notes And Comments
• Magazines Where The Poems Were First Published
• Acknowledgments