The Best American Poetry

The 1999 edition of "The Best American Poetry" will exceed the expectations of the many thousands of readers who eagerly await the annual arrival of this "truly memorable anthology." (Chicago Tribune). Guest editor Robert Bly, an award-winning poet and translator -- famous, too, for his leadership role in the men's movement and his bestselling book, "Iron John" -- has made selections that present American poetry in all its dazzling originality, richness, and variety. The year's poems are striking in their vibrancy; they all display that essential energy that Bly calls "heat," whether the heat of friendship, the heat of form, or the heat that results when a poet "brings the soul up close to the thing" he or she is contemplating. With comments from the poets illuminating their work, "The Best American Poetry 1999" reflects the most exciting and memorable poetry being written at the end of the millennium.

CONTENTS

Foreword by David Lehman

Introduction by Robert Bly

Dick Allen, "The Selfishness of the Poetry Reader"

John Balaban, "Story"

Coleman Barks, "Bill Matthews Coming Along (1942-1997)"

George Bilgere, "Catch"

Elizabeth Bishop, "Foreign-Domestic"

Chana Bloch, "Tired Sex"

Philip Booth, "Narrow Road, Presidents' Day"

John Brehm, "Sea of Faith"

Hayden Carruth, "Because I Am"

Lucille Clifton, "the mississippi river empties into the gulf"

Billy Collins, "Dharma"

Robert Creeley, "Mitch"

Lydia Davis, "Betrayal"

Debra Kang Dean, "Taproot"

Chard deNiord, "Pasternak"

Russell Edson, "Madam's Heart"

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "A Buddha in the Woodpile"

Dan Gerber, "My Father's Fields"

Louise Glück, "Vita Nova"

Ray Gonzalez, "Breastbone"

John Haines, "The Last Election"

Donald Hall, "Smile"

Jennifer Michael Hecht, "September"

Bob Hicok, "What Would Freud Say?"

Jane Hirshfield, "The Envoy"

Tony Hoagland, "Lawrence"

John Hollander, "Beach Whispers"

Amy Holman, "Man Script"

David Ignatow, "The Story of Progress"

Gray Jacobik, "The Circle Theatre"

Josephine Jacobsen, "Last Will and Testament"

Louis Jenkins, "Two Prose Poems"

Mary Karr, "The Patient"

X.J. Kennedy, "A Curse on a Thief"

Galway Kinnell, "Why Regret?"

Carolyn Kizer, "The Erotic Philosophers"

Ron Koertge, "1989"

Yusef Komunyakaa, "Scapegoat"

William Kulik, "The Triumph of Narcissus and Aphrodite"

James Laughlin, "Nunc Dimittis"

Dorianne Laux, "The Shipfitter's Wife"

Li-Young Lee, "The Sleepless Grape"

Denise Levertov, "First Love"

Philip Levine, "The Return"

David Mamet, "A Charade"

Gigi Marks, "The Swim"

William Matthews, "Misgivings"

Wesley McNair, "The Characters of Dirty Jokes"

Czeslaw Milosz, "A Ball"

Joan Murray, From "Sonny's Hands"

Sharon Olds, "What It Meant"

Mary Oliver, "Flare"

Franco Pagnucci, "And Now"

Molly Peacock, "Say You Love Me"

David Ray, "Hemingway's Garden"

Adrienne Rich, "Seven Skins"

Alberto Rios, "Writing from Memory"

Kay Ryan, "That Will to Divest"

Sonia Sanchez, "Last recording session/for papa joe"

Revan Schendler, "The Public and the Private Spheres"

Myra Shapiro, "Longing and Wonder"

Charles Simic, "Barber College Haircut"

Louis Simpson, "A Shearling Coat"

Thomas R. Smith, "Housewarming"

Marcia Southwick, "A Star Is Born in the Eagle Nebula"

William Stafford, "Ways to Live"

Peggy Steele, "The Drunkard's Daughter"

Ruth Stone, "A Moment"

Larissa Szporluk, "Deer Crossing the Sea"

Diane Thiel, "The Minefield"

David Wagoner, "Thoreau and the Crickets"

Richard Wilbur, "This Pleasing Anxious Being"

C.K. Williams, "Archetypes"

Charles Wright, "American Twilight"

Timothy Young, "The Thread of Sunlight"

Contributors' Notes and Comments

Magazines Where the Poems Were First Published

Acknowledgments