# The Best American Poetry 1991

The Best American Poetry 1991, a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Mark Strand.

## Poets and poems included

| Poet | Poem | Where poem previously appeared |
| Johnathon Aaron | "The Voice from Paxos" | The New York Review of Books |
| Ai | "Evidence: From a Reporter's Notebook" | Pequod |
| Dick Allen | "Talking with Poets" | The Hudson Review |
| Julia Alvarez | "Bookmaking" | Green Mountains Review |
| John Ash | "Cigarettes" | Mudfish |
| John Ashbery | "Of Dreams and Dreaming" | Grand Street |
| George Bradley | "Great Stone Face" | Partisan Review |
| Joseph Brodsky | "In Memory of My Father: Australia" | The New Yorker |
| Gerald Burns | "Double Sonnet for Mickey" | Temblor |
| Amy Clampitt | "A Whippoorwill in the Woods" | Boulevard |
| Marc Cohen | "Blue Lonely Dreams" | The Paris Review |
| Alfred Corn | "Infernal Regions and the Invisible Girl" | Poetry |
| Stephen Dobyns | "Desire" | Antaeus |
| Stephen Dunn | "Bringing It Down" | The Georgia Review |
| Carolyn Forche | "The Recording Angel" | Antaeus |
| Alice Fulton | "The Fractal Lanes" | The Yale Review |
| Louise Glück | "Celestial Music" | New Letters |
| Jorie Graham | "The Phase After History" | The Paris Review |
| Melissa Green | "The Consolation of Boethius" | The Paris Review |
| Debora Greger | "The Afterlife" | The New Yorker |
| Linda Gregerson | "Safe" | The Atlantic Monthly |
| Allen Grossman | "The Ether Dome (An Entertainment)" | Western Humanities Review |
| Thom Gunn | "The Beautician" | Ploughshares |
| Donald Hall | "Tubes" | Boulevard |
| Brooks Haxton | "Garden" | The Atlantic Monthly |
| Daniel Hoffman | "Who We Are" | Grand Street |
| John Hollander | "The See-Saw" | The New Republic |
| Paul Hoover | "Desire" | o•blék |
| Ron Horning | "Second Nature" | The New Yorker |
| Richard Howard | "What Word Did the Greeks Have for It?" | The Threepenny Review |
| Josephine Jacobsen | "The Woods" | Ploughshares |
| Donald Justice | "Body and Soul" | Antaeus |
| Vickie Karp | "Elegy" | The New Yorker |
| Robert Kelly | "A Flower for the New Year" | o•blék |
| Jane Kenyon | "Let Evening Come" | Harvard Magazine |
| Karl Kirchwey | "The Diva's First Song (White's Hotel, London)" | Partisan Review |
| Carolyn Kizer | "Marriage Song" | Antaeus |
| Kenneth Koch | "A Time Zone" | The Paris Review |
| John Koethe | "Morning in America" | American Poetry Review |
| Mark Levine | "Work Song" | The New Yorker |
| Laurence Lieberman | "Dark Songs: Slave House and Synagogue" | Pequod |
| Elizabeth Macklin | "At the Classics Teacher's" | The New Yorker |
| J. D. McClatchy | "An Essay on Friendship" | Poetry |
| James McManus | "Smash and Scatteration" | New American Writing |
| James Merrill | "The 'Ring' Cycle" | The New Yorker |
| Susan Mitchell | "Sky of Clouds" | Provincetown Arts |
| Gary Mitchner | "Benedick's Complaints: Ado About Nothing" | Western Humanities Review |
| A. F. Moritz | "Protracted Episode" | Southwest Review |
| Thylias Moss | "Lunchcounter Freedom" | Gargoyle (magazine) |
| Joyce Carol Oates | "Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, 1942" | The Yale Review |
| Bob Perelman | "Chronic Meanings" | Temblor |
| Robert Polito | "Evidence" | Pequod |
| Katha Pollitt | "Night Subway" | The New Republic |
| Susan Prospere | "Into the Open" | The New Yorker |
| Jack Roberts | "The New Reforms" | Sites |
| Sherod Santos | "Two Poems" | The New Yorker |
| Lloyd Schwartz | "Leaves" | The New Republic |
| Robyn Selman | "Past Lives" | Ploughshares |
| David Shapiro | "The Seasons" | American Poetry Review |
| Laurie Sheck | "Living Color" | Ploughshares |
| Charles Simic | "Country Fair" | The New Yorker |
| David R. Slavitt | "The Wound" | Boulevard |
| Charlie Smith | "The Woman as Figure" | New American Writing |
| Elizabeth Spires | "The Haiku Master" | The New Criterion |
| David St. John | "Merlin" | Antaeus |
| Ruth Stone | "For Seven Women" | Boulevard |
| Patricia Storace | "War Movie: Last Leave, 1944" | Ploughshares |
| James Tate | "I Am a Finn" | The Iowa Review |
| Molly Tenenbaum | "Reminiscence Forward" | Fine Madness |
| David Trinidad | "Reruns" | Brooklyn Review |
| Chase Twichell | "Revenge" | Antaeus |
| Derek Walcott | "Omeros" | Partisan Review |
| Rosanna Warren | "Song" | The Atlantic Monthly |
| Susan Wheeler | "Lasting Influence" | The Paris Review |
| Charles Wright | "Reading Lao Tzu Again in the New Year" | Poetry |

## Most-represented publications in this volume

Only one poem per poet is represented in any regular volume in the series, but some publications are represented multiple times among the 75 poems picked by the guest editor (Mark Strand, this year).
In order of frequency, these are the publications most represented this year:
| The New Yorker | 10 |
| Antaeus | 6 |
| Paris Review | 5 |
| Ploughshares | 5 |
| Boulevard | 4 |
| The Atlantic Monthly | 3 |
| The New Republic | 3 |
| Poetry | 3 |
| Pequod | 3 |
| American Poetry Review | 2 |
| Grand Street | 2 |
| New American Writing | 2 |
| O.blek | 2 |
| Partisan Review | 2 |
| The Yale Review | 2 |
| Western Humanities Review | 2 |