Contents
Foreword by Denise Duhamel
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1988. “like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo”
1989. in an unlit alcove where bookstore patrons fear to tread
1990. to inflame passions, disturb the complacent, and arouse the anxiety of despots
1991. a poem entitled “Cigarettes” by a poet named Ash
1992. The question of poetry and its audience
1993. the gust of fresh air that turned into the blizzard of ’93
1994. It’s safe to say that the inaugural was the best-attended poetry reading of the decade
1995. At least somebody played ball in 1994
1996. a given volume in this series might hang question marks over all three terms in the title
1997. As a gimmick, if that’s what it is, National Poetry Month worked
The Best of the Best American Poetry, 1988–1997 (1998). The debate is joined
1998. The president spoke of having had to memorize 100 lines of Macbeth
1999. “Whitman rocks”
2000. “Now I know how poems feel”
2001. “Everybody else was analog and Nietzsche was digital”
2002. The day now marks a boundary
2003. “How many people have to die before you can become president?”
2004. canons do not remain fixed for long
2005. the creative writing workshop [and] the fall of civilization
2006. Accessibility—as a term and, implicitly, as a value
2007. Undoubtedly the most parodied of all poems
2008. Who says that hot poems can’t get you into trouble in 2008?
2009. “that is how I should talk if I could talk poetry”
2010. McChrystal sent copies of “The Second Coming” to his special operators
2011. in Dickinson’s brain, “wider than the sky”
2012. the “uncanny” is a category too little invoked
The Best of the Best American Poetry, 25th Anniversary Edition (2013). “Every time I read Pessoa I think”
2013. It was his poetry that kept him going
2014. In the antagonism between science and the humanities
Index of Names