The Best American Poetry 2005
Series Editor David Lehman
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
This eagerly awaited volume in the celebrated Best American Poetry series reflects the latest developments and represents the last word in poetry today. Paul Muldoon, the distinguished poet and international literary eminence, has selected -- from a pool of several thousand published candidates -- the top seventy-five poems of the year. "The all-consuming interests of American poetry are the all-consuming interests of poetry all over," writes Muldoon in his incisive introduction to the volume.
The Best American Poetry 2005 features a superb company of artists ranging from established masters of the craft, such as John Ashbery, Adrienne Rich, and Charles Wright, to rising stars like Kay Ryan, Tony Hoagland, and Beth Ann Fennelly.
With insightful comments from the poets elucidating their work, and series editor David Lehman's perspicacious foreword addressing the state of the art, The Best American Poetry 2005 is indispensable for every poetry enthusiast.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This extraordinarily popular series enters its 18th year with a strong, entertaining, accessible effort; Muldoon (Hay, Madoc, etc.) avoids polemics and lets readers focus on poems. Elder statesmen and big names put in expected appearances, some of them (A.R. Ammons, Donald Justice, Charles Bukowski) with posthumously published verse. John Ashbery's splendid "In Dearest, Deepest Winter" shows him attending to life after 9/11; Lyn Hejinian's contribution (excerpted from a book-length poem) attends to the vagaries of the inner life. Selections from less well-known writers favor clarity, technique, and humor, or at least wry irony: Victoria Chang describes "Seven Changs" who share her name; Marlys West's "Ballad of the Subcontractor" describes "the workers who deserted" her building, and the debate champion who irritated her in high school, "like a star quarterback but/ Smaller, brighter." Stacey Harwood assembles a clever prose poem out of nine (fake) "Contributors' Notes." The light touch, formal intricacy and attention to whimsy that have helped earn Muldoon international fame are all in evidence here; it makes for a cohesive collection, open to all the usual arguments about what's really "best" also always part of the fun.
