The Best of the Best American Poetry, 1988-1997 Book

CONTENTS

Foreword by David Lehman

Introduction by Harold Bloom

Jonathan Aaron, "Dance Mania"

A. R. Ammons, "Anxiety's Prosody"

A. R. Ammons, "Garbage"

A. R. Ammons, "From Strip"

John Ashbery, "Baked Alaska"

John Ashbery, "Myrtle"

John Ashbery, "The Problem of Anxiety"

Elizabeth Bishop, "It Is Marvellous..."

George Bradley, "The Fire Fetched Down"

Lucie Brock-Broido, "Inevitably, She Declined"

Anne Carson, "The Life of Towns"

Amy Clampitt, "My Cousin Muriel"

Douglas Crase, "True Solar Holiday"

Carolyn Creedon, "litany"

Thomas M. Disch, "The Cardinal Detoxes: A Play in One Act"

Irving Feldman, "Terminal Laughs"

Aaron Fogel, "The Printer's Error"

Alice Fulton, "Powers of Congress"

Allen Ginsberg, "Salutations to Fernando Pessoa"

Louise Glück, "Celestial Music"

Louise Glück, "Vespers"

Jorie Graham, "Manifest Destiny"

Jorie Graham, "What the Instant Contains"

Allen Grossman, "The Piano Player Explains Himself"

Donald Hall, "Prophecy"

Donald Hall, "The Porcelain Couple"

Vicki Hearne, "St. Luke Painting the Virgin"

Anthony Hecht, "Prospects"

Edward Hirsch, "Man on a Fire Escape"

John Hollander, "Kinneret"

John Hollander, "An Old-Fashioned Song"

John Hollander, "The See-Saw"

Richard Howard, "Like Most Revelations"

Donald Justice, "Nostalgia of the Lakefronts"

Donald Justice, "Invitation to a Ghost"

Brigit Pegeen Kelly, "The White Pilgrim: Old Christian Cemetery"

Jane Kenyon, "Three Songs at the End of Summer"

Galway Kinnell, "When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone"

Karl Kirchwey, "Sonogram"

Kenneth Koch, "One Train May Hide Another"

Yusef Komunyakaa, "Facing It"

Ann Lauterbach, "Psyche's Dream"

Philip Levine, "Scouting"

Harry Mathews, "Histoire"

J. D. McClatchy, "An Essay on Friendship"

James Merrill, "A Room at the Heart of Things"

James Merrill, "The 'Ring' Cycle"

James Merrill, "Family Week at Oracle Ranch"

W. S. Merwin, "The Stranger"

Susan Mitchell, "Havana Birth"

A. F. Moritz, "Protracted Episode"

Thylias Moss, "The Warmth of Hot Chocolate"

Brighde Mullins, "At the Lakehouse"

Molly Peacock, "Have You Ever Faked an Orgasm?"

Bob Perelman, "Movie"

Carl Phillips, "A Mathematics of Breathing"

Kay Ryan, "Outsider Art"

Grace Schulman, "The Present Perfect"

David Shapiro, "The Seasons"

rdCharles Simic, "Country Fair"

Charles Simic, "The Something"

Gary Snyder, "Ripples on the Surface"

Mark Strand, "Reading in Place"

Mark Strand, "From Dark Harbor"

Mark Strand, "Morning, Noon and Night"

May Swenson, "Sleeping with Boa"

Derek Walcott, "Omeros"

Rosanna Warren, "The Cormorant"

Rosanna Warren, "Diversion"

Susan Wheeler, "What Memory Reveals"

Richard Wilbur, "Lying"

Richard Wilbur, "A Wall in the Woods: Cummington"

Charles Wright, "Disjecta Membra"

Jay Wright, "Madrid"

Jay Wright, "The Cradle Logic of Autumn"

Contributors' Notes and Comments

Excerpts from the Introductions with Headnotes by David Lehman

John Ashbery

Donald Hall

Jorie Graham

Mark Strand

Charles Simic

Louise Glück

A. R. Ammons

Richard Howard

Adrienne Rich

James Tate

David Lehman

Acknowledgments

Cumulative Series Index