Contemporary American Poetry (Penguin Academics Series)

by Gwynn, R. S.; Lindner, April

• ISBN13: 9780321182821
• ISBN10: 0321182820
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-13
• Publisher: Longman

Summary

Edited by poets about poets,Contemporary American Poetryis a chronologically organized anthology covering major poets born after 1920.

Table of Contents

Alphabetical List of Authors	xxii
Preface	xxvii
Introduction	1	(3)
William Pritchard
Howard Nemerov (March 1, 1920-July 5, 1991)
History of a Literary Movement	4	(1)
The Fourth of July	5	(1)
A Primer of the Daily Round	6	(1)
The Human Condition	7	(1)
Amy Clampitt (June 15, 1920--September 10, 1994)
The Kingfisher	8	(1)
What the Light Was Like	9	(5)
Nothing Stays Put	14	(1)
Charles Bukowski (August 16, 1920--March 9, 1994)
my father	15	(1)
the great escape	16	(2)
Richard Wilbur (b. March 1, 1921)
The Pardon	18	(1)
A Simile for Her Smile	19	(1)
Year's End	19	(1)
Love Calls Us to the Things of This World	20	(1)
Mind	21	(1)
Advice to a Prophet	22	(1)
The Writer	23	(1)
Hamlen Brook	24	(1)
For C.	25	(1)
Mona Van Duyn (b. May 9, 1921)
Letters from a Father	26	(3)
Hayden Carruth (b. August 3, 1921)
Woodsmoke at 70	29	(1)
Pittsburgh	30	(1)
Frederick Morgan (April 25, 1922-February 20, 2004)
The Step	31	(1)
The Burial	32	(1)
Anthony Hecht (b. January 16, 1923)
The Dover Bitch: A Criticism of Life	33	(1)
A Hill	34	(1)
``More Light! More Light!''	35	(1)
Third Avenue in Sunlight	36	(1)
The Book of Yolek	37	(2)
James Dickey (February 2, 1923-January 19, 1997)
The Heaven of Animals	39	(1)
Adultery	40	(1)
The Sheep Child	41	(3)
Alan Dugan (February 12, 1923-September 3, 2003)
On a Seven-Day Diary	44	(1)
Love Song: I and Thou	45	(1)
Tribute to Kafka for Someone Taken	46	(1)
Surviving the Hurricane	46	(1)
Louis Simpson (b. March 27, 1923)
To the Western World	47	(1)
American Poetry	48	(1)
My Father in the Night Commanding No	48	(2)
American Classic	50	(1)
Physical Universe	51	(3)
Daniel Hoffman (b. April 3, 1923)
Rats	54	(1)
Bob	55	(2)
Violence	57	(1)
Denise Levertov (October 24, 1923-December 20, 1999)
The Secret	58	(1)
What Were They Like?	59	(1)
Song for Ishtar	60	(1)
Richard Hugo (December 21, 1923-October 22, 1982)
Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg	61	(1)
My Buddy	62	(2)
Bay of Recovery	64	(1)
Edgar Bowers (March 2, 1924-February 4, 2000)
The Astronomers of Mont Blanc	65	(1)
Mary	66	(1)
A Fragment: the Cause	67	(1)
Edward Field (b. June 7, 1924)
The Bride of Frankenstein	68	(2)
The Dog Sitters	70	(1)
John Haines (b. June 29, 1924)
Life in an Ashtray	71	(1)
Rain Country	72	(5)
Gerald Stern (b. February 22, 1925)
Behaving Like a Jew	77	(1)
The Dancing	78	(1)
The Sounds of Wagner	79	(1)
Maxine Kumin (b. June 6, 1925)
Morning Swim	80	(1)
Woodchucks	81	(1)
Noted in the New York Times	82	(1)
Oblivion	83	(1)
Donald Justice (August 12, 1925-August 6, 2004)
Counting the Mad	84	(1)
But That Is Another Story	85	(1)
Men at Forty	86	(1)
American Scenes (1904-1905)	87	(2)
Carolyn Kizer (b. December 10, 1925)
The Ungrateful Garden	89	(1)
Bitch	90	(1)
Pro Femina: Part Three	91	(2)
W. D. Snodgrass (b. January 5, 1926)
``After Experience Taught Me . . .''	93	(1)
The Examination	94	(2)
Mementos, I	96	(1)
A. R. Ammons (February 18, 1926-February 25, 2001)
Corsons Inlet	97	(4)
First Carolina Said-Song	101	(1)
The Foot-Washing	102	(1)
James Merrill (March 3, 1926-February 6, 1995)
Charles on Fire	103	(1)
The Broken Home	104	(3)
Casual Wear	107	(1)
Robert Creeley (b. May 21, 1926)
Naughty Boy	108	(1)
I Know a Man	109	(1)
Oh No	109	(1)
The Language	109	(2)
Allen Ginsberg (June 3, 1926-April 5, 1997)
America	111	(3)
Howl: 1	114	(7)
A Supermarket in California	121	(1)
Frank O'Hara (June 27, 1926-July 25, 1966)
Why I Am Not a Painter	122	(1)
The Day Lady Died	123	(1)
Poem	124	(1)
Robert Bly (b. December 23, 1926)
After Drinking All Night with a Friend, We Go Out in a Boat at Dawn to See Who Can Write the Best Poem	125	(1)
For My Son, Noah, Ten Years Old	126	(1)
The Scandal	127	(1)
Galway Kinnell (b. February 1, 1927)
After Making Love We Hear Footsteps	128	(1)
Goodbye	129	(1)
Saint Francis and the Sow	130	(1)
John Ashbery (b. July 28, 1927)
Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape	131	(2)
The Other Tradition	133	(1)
Paradoxes and Oxymorons	134	(1)
The Gods of Fairness	135	(1)
This Room	135	(1)
Toy Symphony	136	(1)
W.S. Merwin (b. September 30, 1927)
The Drunk in the Furnace	137	(1)
For the Anniversary of My Death	138	(1)
The Last One	139	(2)
The Judgment of Paris	141	(3)
James Wright (December 13, 1927-March 25, 1980)
Saint Judas	144	(1)
Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio	145	(1)
A Blessing	145	(1)
Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota	146	(1)
Two Poems About President Harding	147	(2)
Philip Levine (b. January 10, 1928)
Animals are Passing from Our Lives	149	(1)
They Feed They Lion	150	(1)
You Can Have It	151	(1)
What Work Is	152	(2)
Anne Sexton (November 9, 1928-October 4, 1974)
Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward	154	(2)
All My Pretty Ones	156	(1)
In Celebration of My Uterus	157	(2)
Cinderella	159	(4)
Adrienne Rich (b. May 16, 1929)
Aunt Jennifer's Tigers	163	(1)
Living in Sin	163	(1)
Diving into the Wreck	164	(3)
Rape	167	(1)
An Atlas of the Difficult World: XIII (Dedications)	168	(1)
Final Notations	169	(1)
X.J. Kennedy (b. August 21, 1929)
First Confession	170	(1)
In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day	171	(1)
Little Elegy	172	(1)
Cross Ties	173	(1)
September Twelfth, 2001	173	(1)
Thom Gunn (August 29, 1929-April 25, 2004)
In the Tank	174	(1)
From the Wave	175	(1)
Terminal	176	(1)
Gregory Corso (March 26, 1930-January 17, 2001)
Marriage	177	(4)
Miller Williams (b. April 8, 1930)
Let Me Tell You	181	(1)
The Book	182	(1)
The Curator	183	(2)
Folding His USA Today He Makes His Point in the Blue Star Cafe	185	(1)
Gary Snyder (b. May 8, 1930)
Hay for the Horses	186	(1)
Riprap	187	(1)
A Walk	188	(1)
The Bath	189	(3)
Rhina P. Espaillat (b. January 20, 1932)
Visiting Day	192	(1)
Bra	192	(1)
Reservation	193	(1)
Linda Pastan (b. May 27, 1932)
Ethics	194	(1)
Crocuses	195	(1)
1932-	195	(1)
Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932-February 11, 1963)
The Colossus	196	(1)
Daddy	197	(3)
Edge	200	(1)
Lady Lazarus	201	(2)
The Moon and the Yew Tree	203	(1)
Morning Song	204	(1)
Gerald Barrax (b. June 21, 1933)
Strangers Like Us: Pittsburgh, Raleigh, 1945-1985	205	(1)
Pittsburgh, 1948: The Music Teacher	206	(1)
Mark Strand (b. April 11, 1934)
Eating Poetry	207	(1)
Keeping Things Whole	208	(1)
The Tunnel	209	(1)
The Great Poet Returns	210	(1)
Robert Mezey (b. February 28, 1935)
Hardy	211	(1)
My Mother	211	(2)
Russell Edson (b. April 9, 1935)
An Old Man in Love	213	(1)
When the Ceiling Cries	213	(1)
Ape	214	(1)
Mary Oliver (b. September 10, 1935)
The Black Snake	215	(1)
University Hospital, Boston	216	(1)
The Buddha's Last Instruction	217	(1)
Fred Chappell (b. May 28, 1936)
My Grandmother Washes Her Feet	218	(4)
Narcissus and Echo	222	(1)
Ave Atque Vale	223	(1)
Lucille Clifton (b. June 27, 1936)
homage to my hips	223	(1)
wishes for sons	224	(1)
lee	224	(2)
C.K. Williams (b. November 4, 1936)
Hood	226	(1)
Hooks	226	(1)
Harm	227	(1)
Susan Howe (b. June 10, 1937)
Closed Fist Withholding an Open Palm	228	(2)
Robert Phillips (b. February 2, 1938)
Running on Empty	230	(1)
The Stone Crab: A Love Poem	231	(1)
Compartments	232	(2)
Michael S. Harper (b. March 18, 1938)
Black Study	234	(1)
Dear John, Dear Coltrane	235	(2)
We Assume: On the Death of Our Son, Reuben Masai Harper	237	(1)
Charles Simic (b. May 9, 1938)
Fork	238	(1)
Stone	239	(1)
I was stolen ...	239	(1)
Betty Adcock (b. September 16, 1938)
Digression on the Nuclear Age	240	(1)
To a Young Feminist Who Wants to Be Free	241	(2)
Voyages	243	(2)
Jared Carter (b. January 10, 1939)
Drawing the Antique	245	(1)
Interview	246	(1)
The Purpose of Poetry	247	(1)
Ted Kooser (b. April 25, 1939)
Abandoned Farmhouse	248	(1)
The Salesman	249	(1)
Selecting a Reader	250	(1)
Stephen Dunn (b. June 24, 1939)
The Sacred	250	(1)
A Secret Life	251	(1)
The Sexual Revolution	252	(1)
Tom Disch (b. February 2, 1940)
The Rapist's Villanelle	253	(1)
Zewhyexary	254	(1)
Ballade of the New God	255	(1)
Pattiann Rogers (b. March 23, 1940)
Discovering Your Subject	256	(1)
Foreplay	257	(2)
Robert Pinsky (b. October 20, 1940)
Shirt	259	(2)
The Want Bone	261	(1)
ABC	261	(1)
Peter Makuck (b. October 26, 1940)
Catsail	262	(1)
Leaning Against the Bar at Wrong-Way Corrigan's in Greenville, North Carolina	263	(1)
Robert Hass (b. March 1, 1941)
Meditation at Lagunitas	264	(1)
A Story About the Body	265	(1)
Forty Something	266	(1)
Billy Collins (b. March 22, 1941)
Schoolsville	266	(1)
Nostalgia	267	(2)
Litany	269	(1)
Toi Derricotte (b. April 12, 1941)
The Feeding	270	(1)
On the Turning Up of Unidentified Black Female Corpses	271	(1)
Black Boys Play the Classics	272	(1)
Gibbons Ruark (b. December 10, 1941)
Polio	273	(1)
The Visitor	274	(1)
Lecturing My Daughters	275	(1)
Henry Taylor (b. June 21, 1942)
Artichoke	276	(1)
Understanding Fiction	277	(1)
Charles Martin (b. June 25, 1942)
E.S.L.	278	(2)
How My Queer Uncle Came to Die at Last	280	(7)
B. H. Fairchild (b. October 17, 1942)
Beauty	287	(6)
Gladys Cardiff (b. November 23, 1942)
Combing	293	(1)
Beautiful Zombies	294	(2)
Sharon Olds (b. November 19, 1942)
The One Girl at the Boys' Party	296	(1)
The Girl	297	(1)
I Go Back to May 1937	298	(1)
Topography	299	(1)
Marilyn Hacker (b. November 27, 1942)
Wagers	300	(1)
Ghazal on Half a Line by Adrienne Rich	301	(1)
Omelette	302	(2)
Sydney Lea (b. December 22, 1942)
Young Man Leaving Home	304	(1)
Hunter's Sabbath: Hippocratic	305	(1)
Louise Gluck (b. April 22, 1943)
Mock Orange	306	(1)
The Reproach	307	(1)
Daisies	308	(1)
Ellen Bryant Voigt (b. May 9, 1943)
Daughter	309	(1)
Lesson	310	(1)
The Others	310	(1)
Michael Palmer (b. May 11, 1943)
Voice and Address	311	(2)
A word is coming up on the screen . . .	313	(1)
Untitled	314	(1)
James Tate (b. December 8, 1943)
The Lost Pilot	315	(2)
The Blue Booby	317	(1)
Teaching the Ape to Write Poems	318	(1)
Robert Morgan (b. October 3, 1944)
Mountain Bride	318	(1)
Sigodlin	319	(2)
Shirley Geok-lin Lim (b. December 27, 1944)
Pantoun for Chinese Women	321	(1)
Riding into California	322	(1)
Starlight Haven	323	(1)
Dick Davis (b. April 8, 1945)
Duchy and Shinks	324	(1)
Farewell to the Mentors	325	(1)
A Monorhyme for the Shower	326	(1)
Kay Ryan (b. September 11, 1945)
Turtle	327	(1)
Bestiary	328	(1)
Drops in the Bucket	328	(1)
Mockingbird	329	(1)
Leon Stokesbury (b. December 5, 1945)
To His Book	330	(1)
Day Begins at Governor's Square Mall	330	(2)
The Day Kennedy Died	332	(2)
Marilyn Nelson (b. April 26, 1946)
The Ballad of Aunt Geneva	334	(1)
Lonely Eagles	335	(3)
Minor Miracle	338	(1)
Thomas Lux (b. December 10, 1946)
Kwashiorkor; Marasmus	339	(1)
Refrigerator, 1957	340	(1)
Yusef Komunyakaa (b. April 29, 1947)
Facing It	341	(1)
My Father's Love Letters	342	(1)
Ode to the Maggot	343	(1)
Molly Peacock (b. June 30, 1947)
Buffalo	344	(1)
Why I Am Not a Buddhist	345	(1)
A Favor of Love	346	(1)
Jim Hall (b. July 4, 1947)
Maybe Dats Your Pwoblem Too	347	(2)
Sperm Count	349	(1)
White Trash	350	(1)
Amy Uyematsu (b. October 18, 1947)
Lessons from Central America	351	(1)
Ai (b. October 21, 1947)
Child Beater	352	(1)
She Didn't Even Wave	353	(1)
Timothy Steele (b. January 22, 1948)
Life Portrait	354	(1)
Sapphics Against Anger	355	(1)
Social Reform	356	(1)
Albert Goldbarth (b. January 31, 1948)
Dog, Fish, Shoes (or Beans)	357	(2)
Rarefied	359	(2)
Wendy Rose (b. May 7, 1948)
Robert	361	(1)
Alfalfa Dance	362	(1)
Grandmother Rattler	363	(2)
Heather McHugh (b. August 20, 1948)
Better or Worse	365	(2)
A Physics	367	(1)
The Size of Spokane	367	(2)
Lynn Emanuel (b. March 14, 1949)
Frying Trout while Drunk	369	(1)
The Sleeping	370	(1)
Outside Room Six	371	(1)
David St. John (b. July 24, 1949)
I Know	372	(1)
My Tea with Madame Descartes	373	(3)
Sarah Cortez (b. February 11, 1950)
Tu Negrito	376	(1)
Undressing a Cop	377	(1)
Rodney Jones (b. February 11, 1950)
On the Bearing of Waitresses	378	(2)
Winter Retreat: Homage to Martin Luther King, Jr.	380	(2)
Julia Alvarez (b. March 27, 1950)
from ``33''	382	(1)
How I Learned to Sweep	382	(2)
Bilingual Sestina	384	(1)
Carolyn Forche (b. April 28, 1950)
The Colonel	385	(1)
Expatriate	386	(1)
For the Stranger	387	(2)
Jorie Graham (b. May 9, 1950)
At Luca Signorelli's Resurrection of the Body	389	(3)
I Watched a Snake	392	(2)
Two Paintings by Gustav Klimt	394	(3)
Mekeel McBride (b. July 3, 1950)
Aubade	397	(1)
If that Boaty Pink Cadillac from 1959 With The Huge Fins	398	(1)
Kettle	399	(1)
Emily Grosholz (b. October 17, 1950)
Letter from Germany	400	(1)
November	401	(1)
Dana Gioia (b. December 24, 1950)
The Next Poem	402	(1)
Planting a Sequoia	403	(1)
Elegy with Surrealist Proverbs as Refrain	404	(1)
Timothy Murphy (b. January 10, 1951)
The Track of a Storm	405	(1)
Case Notes	406	(2)
Andrew Hudgins (b. April 22, 1951)
Air View of an Industrial Scene	408	(1)
Where the River Jordan Ends	409	(1)
Heat Lightning in a Time of Drought	410	(3)
Joy Harjo (b. May 9, 1951)
She Had Some Horses	413	(2)
Song for the Deer and Myself to Return On	415	(1)
Judith Ortiz Cofer (b. February 24, 1952)
The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica	416	(1)
The Lesson of the Teeth	417	(1)
Naomi Shihab Nye (b. March 12, 1952)
The Traveling Onion	418	(1)
Yellow Glove	419	(2)
Mark Jarman (b. June 5, 1952)
After Disappointment	421	(1)
Ground Swell	422	(2)
Rita Dove (b. August 28, 1952)
Adolescence---III	424	(1)
After Reading Mickey in the Night Kitchen for the Third Time Before Bed	425	(1)
American Smooth	426	(1)
Alberto Rios (b. September 18, 1952)
Madre Sofia	427	(2)
The Purpose of Altar Boys	429	(2)
Brad Leithauser (b. February 27, 1953)
A Quilled Quilt, A Needle Bed	431	(1)
The Odd Last Thing She Did	432	(3)
Harryette Mullen (b. July 1, 1953)
Any Lit	435	(1)
Dim Lady	436	(1)
Mark Doty (b. August 10, 1953)
Bill's Story	437	(2)
No	439	(1)
Gjertrud Schnackenberg (b. August 27, 1953)
Nightfishing	440	(1)
Signs	441	(1)
Supernatural Love	441	(2)
Michael Donaghy (b. May 24, 1954)
Pentecost	443	(1)
Black Ice and Rain	444	(3)
The River in Spate	447	(1)
Kim Addonizio (b. July 31, 1954)
First Poem for You	448	(1)
Fine	449	(1)
Target	449	(1)
Mary Jo Salter (b. August 15, 1954)
Welcome to Hiroshima	450	(2)
Dead Letters: Part I	452	(1)
David Mason (b. December 11, 1954)
Song of the Powers	453	(1)
The Collector's Tale	454	(7)
Ginger Andrews (b. May 16, 1956)
Primping in the Rearview Mirror	461	(1)
Forrest Hamer (b. August 31, 1956)
Erection	462	(1)
Li-Young Lee (b. August 19, 1957)
Persimmons	463	(3)
H. L. Hix (b. November 24, 1960)
from ``Orders of Magnitude''	466	(1)
Denise Duhamel (b. June 13, 1961)
Ego	467	(1)
Catherine Tufariello (b. April 9, 1963)
Useful Advice	468	(2)
Greg Williamson (b. June 26, 1964)
Kites at the Washington Monument	470	(2)
Rafael Campo (b. November 24, 1964)
Oysters	472	(1)
Christian Wiman (b. August 31, 1966)
Afterwards	473	(1)
Sherman Alexie (b. October 7, 1966)
The Exaggeration of Despair	474	(2)
Diane Thiel (b. May 9, 1967)
The Minefield	476	(1)
A.E. Stallings (b. July 2, 1968)
Hades Welcomes His Bride	477	(2)
Suji Kwock Kim (b. September 26, 1968)
Occupation	479	(1)
Wilmer Mills (b. October 1, 1969)
Ghost Story	480	(1)
Morri Creech (b. September 15, 1970)
Broken Glass	481	(2)
Beth Ann Fennelly (b. May 22, 1971)
Asked for a Happy Memory of Her Father, She Recalls Wrigley Field	483	(2)
Appendix A: Literary Movements	485	(9)
Appendix B: Major Prizes	494	(4)
Acknowledgments	498	(9)
Index of Poets, Titles, and First Lines	507