The Best American Poetry 1997

CONTENTS

Foreword by David Lehman

Introduction by James Tate

Ai, "Back in the World"

Sherman Alexie, "The Exaggeration of Despair"

Agha Shahid Ali, "Return to Harmony 3"

A. R. Ammons, from "Strip"

Nin Andrews, "That Cold Summer"

L. S. Asekoff, "Rounding the Horn"

John Ashbery, "The Problem of Anxiety"

Marianne Boruch, "Camouflage"

Catherine Bowman, "No Sorry"

Joseph Brodsky, "Love Song"

Stephanie Brown, "Feminine Intuition"

Joshua Clover, "The Map Room"

Billy Collins, "Lines Lost Among Trees"

Gillian Conoley, "The Sky Drank In"

Jayne Cortez, "The Heavy Headed Dance"

Robert Creeley, "Won't It Be Fine?"

Carl Dennis, "History"

William Dickey, "The Death of John Berryman"

Robert Dow, "How Should I Say This?"

Thomas Sayers Ellis, "Atomic Bride"

Irving Feldman, "You Know What I'm Saying?"

Herman Fong, "Asylum"

Dick Gallup, "Backing into the Future"

Martin Galvin, "Introductions"

Amy Gerstler, "A Fan Letter"

Allen Ginsberg, "Is About"

Dana Gioia, "The Litany"

Elton Glaser, "Smoking"

Kate Gleason, "After Fighting for Hours"

Albert Goldbarth, "Complete with Starry Night and Bourbon Shots"

Jorie Graham, "Thinking"

Donald Hall, "The Porcelain Couple"

Daniel Halpern, "Her Body"

Robert Hass, "Interrupted Meditation"

Bob Hicok, "Heroin"

Paul Hoover, "California"

Christine Hume, "Helicopter Wrecked on a Hill"

Harry Humes, "The Butterfly Effect"

Don Hymans, "Passacaglia"

Lawson Fusao Inada, "Making It Stick"

Richard Jackson, "The Poem That Was Once Called 'Desperate' But Is Now Striving to Become the Perfect Love Poem"

Gray Jacobik, "Dust Storm"

George Kalamaras, "Mud"

Jennifer L. Knox, "The Bright Light of Responsibility"

Philip Kobylarz, "A Bill, Posted"

Yusef Komunyakaa, "Jeanne Duval's Confession"

Elizabeth Kostova, "Suddenly I Realized I Was Sitting"

Denise Levertov, "The Change"

Larry Levis, "Anastasia and Sandman"

Matthew Lippman, "Hallelujah Terrible"

Beth Lisick, "Empress of Sighs"

Khaled Mattawa, "Heartsong"

William Matthews, "Vermin"

Josip Novakovich, "Shadow"

Geoffrey Nutter, from A Summer Evening

Catie Rosemurgy, "Mostly Mick Jagger"

Clare Rossini, "Valediction"

Mary Ruefle, "Topophilia"

Hillel Schwartz, "Recruiting Poster"

Maureen Seaton, "Fiddleheads"

pardVijay Seshadri, "Lifeline"

Steven Sherrill, "Katyn Forest"

Charles Simic, "The Something"

Charlie Smith, "Beds"

Leon Stokesbury, "Evening's End"

Mark Strand, "Morning, Noon and Night"

Jack Turner, "The Plan"

Karen Volkman, "Infernal"

Derek Walcott, "Italian Eclogues"

Rosanna Warren, "Diversion"

Lewis Warsh, "Downward Mobility"

Terence Winch, "Shadow Grammar"

Eve Wood, "Recognition"

Charles Wright, "Disjecta Membra"

Dean Young, "Frottage"

Contributors' Notes and Comments

Magazines Where the Poems Were First Published

Acknowledgments

Cumulative Series Index