Best American Poetry 2017

David Lehman, Natasha Trethewey

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781501127755
• eBook ISBN:
  9781501127779
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

Edited by Pulitzer Prize-winner and nineteenth US Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, The Best American Poetry 2017 brings together the most notable poems of the year in the series that offers "a vivid snapshot of what a distinguished poet finds exciting, fresh, and memorable" (Robert Pinsky). Librarian of Congress James Billington says Natasha Trethewey "consistently and dramatically expanded the power" of the role of US Poet Laureate, holding office hours with the public, traveling the country, and reaching millions through her innovative PBS NewsHour segment "Where Poetry Lives." Marilyn Nelson says "the wide scope of Trethewey's interests and her adept handling of form have created an opus of classics both elegant and necessary." With her selections and introductory essay for The Best American Poetry 2017, Trethewey will be highlighting even more "elegant and necessary" poems and poets, adding to the national conversation of verse and its role in our culture.The Best American Poetry is not just another anthology; it serves as a guide to who's who and what's happening in American poetry and is an eagerly awaited publishing event each year. With Trethewey's insightful touch and genius for plumbing the depths of history and personal experience to shape striking verse, The Best American Poetry 2017 is another brilliant addition to the series.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Foreword by David Lehman
• Introduction by Natasha Trethewey
• Dan Albergotti, “Weapons Discharge Report”
• John Ashbery, “Commotion of the Birds”
• Mary Jo Bang, “Admission”
• David Barber, “On a Shaker Admonition”
• Dan Beachy-Quick, “Apophatic”
• Bruce Bond, “Homage to a Painter of Small Things”
• John Brehm, “Intrigue in the Trees”
• Jericho Brown, “Bullet Points”
• Nickole Brown, “The Dead”
• Cyrus Cassells, “Elegy with a Gold Cradle”
• Isaac Cates, “Fidelity and the Dead Singer”
• Allison Cobb, “I Forgive You”
• Leonard Cohen, “Steer Your Way”
• Michael Collier, “A Wild Tom Turkey”
• Billy Collins, “The Present”
• Carl Dennis, “Two Lives”
• Claudia Emerson, “Spontaneous Remission”
• David Feinstein, “Kaddish”
• Carolyn Forché, “The Boatman”
• Vievee Francis, “Given to These Proclivities, By God”
• Amy Gerstler, “Dead Butterfly”
• Reginald Gibbons, “Canasta”
• Margaret Gibson, “Passage”
• Aracelis Girmay, “from The Black Maria”
• Jeffrey Harrison, “Higher Education”
• Terrance Hayes, “Ars Poetica with Bacon”
• W. J. Herbert, “Mounting the Dove Box”
• Tony Hoagland, “Cause of Death: Fox News”
• John Hodgen, “Hamlet Texts Guildenstern about Playing upon the Pipe”
• David Brendan Hopes, “Certain Things”
• Major Jackson, “The Flâneur Tends a Well-Liked Summer Cocktail”
• John James, “History (n.)”
• Rodney Jones, “Homecoming”
• Fady Joudah, “Progress Notes”
• Meg Kearney, “Grackle”
• John Koethe, “The Age of Anxiety”
• Yusef Komunyakaa, “from The Last Bohemian of Avenue A”
• Danusha Laméris, “The Watch”
• Dorianne Laux, “Lapse”
• Philip Levine, “Rain in Winter”
• Amit Majmudar, “Kill List”
• Jamaal May, “Things That Break”
• Judson Mitcham, “White”
• John Murillo, “Upon Reading That Eric Dolphy Transcribed Even the Calls of Certain Species of Birds,”
• Joyce Carol Oates, “To Marlon Brando in Hell”
• Sharon Olds, “Ode to the Glans”
• Matthew Olzmann, “Letter Beginning with Two Lines by Czesław Miłosz”
• Gregory Orr, “Three Dark Proverb Sonnets”
• Carl Phillips, “Rockabye”
• Rowan Ricardo Phillips, “Halo”
• Robert Pinsky, “Names”
• Stanley Plumly, “Poliomyelitis”
• Paisley Rekdal, “Assemblage of Ruined Plane Parts, Vietnam Military Museum, Hanoi”
• Michael Ryan, “The Mercy Home”
• David St. John, “Emanations”
• Sherod Santos, “I Went for a Walk in Winter”
• Taije Silverman, “Where to Put It”
• Charles Simic, “Seeing Things”
• Danez Smith, “last summer of innocence”
• Maggie Smith, “Good Bones”
• R. T. Smith, “Maricón”
• A. E. Stallings, “Shattered”
• Pamela Sutton, “Afraid to Pray”
• Chase Twichell, “Sad Song”
• James Valvis, “Something”
• Emily Van Kley, “Dear Skull”
• Wendy Videlock, “Deconstruction”
• Lucy Wainger, “Scheherazade.”
• Crystal Williams, “Double Helix”
• Christian Wiman, “Prelude”
• Monica Youn, “Greenacre”
• C. Dale Young, “Precatio simplex”
• Dean Young, “Infinitives”
• Kevin Young, “Money Road”
• Matthew Zapruder, “Poem for Vows”
• Contributors’ Notes and Comments
• Magazines Where the Poems Were First Published
• Acknowledgments
• About the Editors
• Copyright