The Best American Poetry 2004 celebrates the vitality and richness of poetry in the United States and Canada today. In her provocative introduction, guest editor Lyn Hejinian, herself among the most acclaimed and innovative contemporary writers, expresses the need for this anthology. "Meaning in poetry," she writes, "is created by the linking together of poems to form the large, ancient, and ever new human undertaking of thinking together about the things that matter to us." Through her selections, Hejinian has created an essential nexus -- a meeting place for readers to encounter and commune with an extraordinary range of poets. She has brought together renowned figures such as John Ashbery, Anne Carson, and Billy Collins as well as many new and unheralded voices from whom we're going to be hearing a lot more in the future.

With illuminating comments from the poets on their work, and series editor David Lehman's insightful foreword evaluating the current state of the art, The Best American Poetry 2004 is an indispensable addition to a series that has established itself as the first word on what's new and noteworthy in the poetry of our times.

Lyn Hejinian was born in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1941. A poet, essayist, and translator, she is the author or coauthor of more than two dozen books, including The Fatalist, My Life, and The Language of Inquiry, a collection of her critical essays. She recently received the sixty-sixth Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets for distinguished poetic achievement at midcareer. She lives in Berkeley and teaches at the University of California. David Lehman is on the core faculty of the graduate writing programs at Bennington College and The New School

Foreword

1

(8)

David Lehman

Introduction

9

(6)

Lyn Hejinian

``Chicken''

15

(2)

Kim Addonizio

from ``Solea of the Simooms''

17

(5)

Will Alexander

from ``Dang Me''

22

(4)

Bruce Andrews

``Almost''

26

(2)

Rae Armantrout

``Your friend's arriving on the bus''

28

(3)

Craig Arnold

``Wolf Ridge''

31

(1)

John Ashbery

``The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity''

32

(2)

Mary Jo Bang

``20 Questions''

34

(2)

Alan Bernheimer

``Sign Under Test''

36

(7)

Charles Bernstein

``Token Enabler''

43

(2)

Anselm Berrigan

from ``Blasted Fields of Clover Bring Harrowing and Regretful Sighs''

45

(1)

Mark Bibbins

``The Walk''

46

(2)

Oni Buchanan

``a cloud of dusk''

48

(1)

Michael Burkard

``Gnosticism''

49

(4)

Anne Carson

``Landscape with a Calm''

53

(2)

T. J. Clark

``The Centrifuge''

55

(2)

Billy Collins

``3-4-00''

57

(2)

Jack Collom

``Ode to My Flint and Boom Bolivia''

59

(2)

Michael Costello

``Bad Modernism''

61

(2)

Michael Davidson

``You Art A Scholar, Horatio, Speak To It''

63

(3)

Olena Kalytiak Davis

``Prose of the World Order''

66

(5)

Jean Day

``13''

71

(2)

Linh Dinh

``All Souls''

73

(2)

Rita Dove

``Draft 55: Quiptych''

75

(5)

Rachel Blau DuPlessis

``short sorry''

80

(2)

kari edwards

``Sibling Rivalry''

82

(4)

Kenward Elmslie

``337,000, December, 2000''

86

(4)

Aaron Fogel

``Saints''

90

(2)

Arielle Greenberg

``Anyway''

92

(2)

Ted Greenwald

``Nostalgia of the Infinite''

94

(1)

Barbara Guest

from ``Baby''

95

(11)

Carla Harryman

``Poe: An Assay (I)''

106

(2)

Jane Hirshfield

``For `Fiddle-De-Dee'''

108

(2)

John Hollander

``Catholic''

110

(13)

Fanny Howe

``[Record]''

123

(2)

Kenneth Irby

from ``Urban Renewal''

125

(1)

Major Jackson

``King of Repetition''

126

(2)

Marc Jaffee

``The Man''

128

(6)

Kenneth Koch

``To an Audience''

134

(2)

John Koethe

``Ignis Fatuus''

136

(2)

Yusef Komunyakaa

``The Dark Continent''

138

(7)

Sean Manzano Labrador

``After Mahler''

145

(2)

Ann Lauterbach

``Sound and Cerement''

147

(6)

Nathaniel Mackey

``Lateral Disregard''

153

(1)

Harry Mathews

``Some Versions of Pastoral''

154

(11)

Steve McCaffery

``Mars Needs Terrorists''

165

(5)

K. Silem Mohammad

``8 Little Theatres of the Cornices''

170

(6)

Erin Moure

``The Last Time I Saw Chris''

176

(2)

Paul Muldoon

``No Rewriting''

178

(6)

Eileen Myles

``State of the Union''

184

(2)

Alice Notley

``Blue Collar Holiday''

186

(1)

Jeni Olin

``RSVP''

187

(1)

Danielle Pafunda

``Real Toads''

188

(1)

Heidi Peppermint

``Here 2''

189

(4)

Bob Perelman

``Pleasure''

193

(2)

Carl Phillips

``Samba''

195

(2)

Robert Pinsky

``In the First Circle of Limbo''

197

(1)

Carl Rakosi

``Ideas Gray Suits Bowler Hats Baal''

198

(2)

Ed Roberson

``The 3D Matchmove Artist''

200

(2)

Kit Robinson

``the story''

202

(3)

Carl Sachs

``III''

205

(2)

Jennifer Scappettone

``Love Song''

207

(3)

Frederick Seidel

``A Burning Interior''

210

(11)

David Shapiro

``Compliance Engineering''

221

(3)

Ron Silliman

``Song of the Ransom of the Dark''

224

(2)

Bruce Smith

``They're Putting a New Door In''

226

(2)

Brian Kim Stefans

``Dog That I Am''

228

(1)

Gerald Stern

``La Florida''

229

(2)

Virgil Suarez

``Acanthus''

231

(2)

Arthur Sze

``Bounden Duty''

233

(2)

James Tate

``The Theorist Has No Samba!''

235

(2)

Edwin Torres

``Meditatio Lectoris''

237

(4)

Rodrigo Toscano

``Appeal to the Grammarians''

241

(2)

Paul Violi

``Trying to Make Music''

243

(1)

David Wagoner

``In Praise of Han Shan''

244

(1)

Charles Wright

Contributors' Notes and Comments

245

(28)

Magazines Where the Poems Were First Published

273

(2)

Acknowledgments

275

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