# The Best American Poetry 1988

The Best American Poetry 1988, the first volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor John Ashbery, who chose one of his own poems among the group of 75.

## Lehman's forward

Although Lehman would later use his forewords as a kind of "state of poetry" review of the previous year, in this first volume he concentrated on the nature of this anthology, with most of the foreword given over to explaining the mechanics of the process (see The Best American Poetry series for those comments).
There seem to be plenty of creative writing programs, so it appears there will be an audience for the series, Lehman wrote, and with poetry appearing in so many different publications, an annual anthology could help readers find poetry in one place.

## Poets and poems included

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vte :
| Poet | Poem | Where poem previously appeared |
| A. R. Ammons | "Motion Which Disestablishes Organizes Everything" | The Hudson Review |
| Ralph Angel | "Shadow Play" | Poetry |
| Rae Armantrout | "Bases" | o•blék |
| John Ash | "Memories of Italy" | Disbelief |
| John Ashbery | "One Coat of Paint" | Shenandoah |
| Ted Berrigan | "My Autobiography" | New American Writing |
| Mei-mei Berssenbrugge | "Chinese Space" | Conjunctions |
| George Bradley | "Noch Einmal, an Orpheus" | Grand Street |
| Stefan Brecht | "Momentariness" | Tyuonyi |
| Joseph Brodsky | "To Urania" | The Paris Review |
| Nicholas Christopher | "Miranda inReno" | The New Republic |
| Marc Cohen | "Mecox Road" | Verse |
| Wanda Coleman | "Essay on Language" | Heavy Daughter Blues |
| Clark Coolidge | "A Monologue" | o•blék |
| Alfred Corn | "New Year" | Partisan Review |
| Douglas Crase | "Dog Star Sale" | The Paris Review |
| Robert Creeley | "The Dream" | Exquisite Corpse |
| Thomas M. Disch | "In Memoriam" | Boulevard |
| Kenward Elmslie | "Top O' Silo" | Conjunctions |
| Alice Fulton | "Losing It" | Epoch |
| Amy Gerstler | "marriage" | New American Writing |
| Jorie Graham | "On Difficulty" | The End of Beauty |
| Debora Greger | "Snow White and Rose Red" | The New Yorker |
| Allen Grossman | "The Piano Player Explains Himself" | Grand Street |
| Barbara Guest | "Words" | Tyuonyi |
| Rachel Hadas | "Nourishment" | Boulevard |
| Donald Hall | "Prophecy" | The Paris Review |
| Robert Hass | "Thin Air" | Antaeus |
| Seamus Heaney | "A Shooting Script" | American Poetry Review |
| Anthony Hecht | "Envoi" | The Yale Review |
| Gerrit Henry | "The Confessions of Gerrit" | Mudfish |
| John Hollander | "An Old Story is Retold" | Partisan Review |
| Richard Howard | "The Foreigner Remembered by a Local Man" | For Nelson Mandela |
| Donald Justice | "Nostalgia of the Lakefronts" | Antaeus |
| Robert Kelly | "Hercules Musarum" | Tyuonyi |
| Kevin Killiam | "Pasolini" | Shiny International |
| August Kleinzahler | "Soda Water with a Boyhood Friend" | New American Writing |
| Caroline Knox | "Movement Along the Frieze" | New American Writing |
| Kenneth Koch | "What People Say About Paris" | Poetry |
| John Koethe | "Mistral" | The Paris Review |
| Philip Lamantia | "Unachieved" | Sulfur |
| Ann Lauterbach | "Psyche's Dream" | Before Recollection |
| David Lehman | "Operation Memory" | Shenandoah |
| Philip Levine | "A Walk with Tom Jefferson" | The Paris Review |
| Nathaniel Mackey | "Degree Four" | Conjunctions |
| Michael Malinowitz | "Funeral March for a Papagallo" | Aerial |
| Tom Mandel | "Hungry and Waiting" | Sulfur |
| Harry Mathews | "Histoire" | Armenian Papers |
| Bernadette Mayer | "Holding the Thought of Love" | Exquisite Corpse |
| James Merrill | "Farewell Performance" | Grand Street |
| Eileen Myles | "Public Television" | Shiny International |
| A. L. Nielson | "Route E" | Aerial |
| Ron Padgett | "Light As Air" | Boulevard |
| Michael Palmer | "From C" | o•blék |
| Bob Perelman | "Politics" | o•blék |
| Robert Pinsky | "The Hearts" | The New Republic |
| Donald Revell | "St. Lucy's Day" | Poetry |
| Joe Ross | "From Act I, Scene II of Guards of the Heart" | 'Aerial |
| Leslie Scalapino | "Jumping-jack flash" | Conjunctions |
| James Schuyler | "Let's All Hear It for Mildred Bailey!" | Poetry |
| David Shapiro | "Empathy for David Winfield" | Diamonds are Forever: Artists and Writers on Baseball |
| Charles Simic | "St Thomas Aquinas" | Antaeus |
| Gary Snyder | "Walking the New York Bedrock Alive in the Sea of Information" | Sulfur |
| Ruth Stone | "The Latest Hotel Guest Walks Over Particles That Revolve in Seven Other Dimensions Controlling Latticed Space" | American Poetry Review |
| May Swenson | "Dummy, 51, to Go to Museum. Ventriloquist Dead at 75" | In Other Words |
| James Tate | "Neighbors" | Sonora Review |
| Lydia Tomkiw | "Six of Ox Is" | New American Writing |
| Derek Walcott | "Elsewhere" | The Arkansas Testament |
| Rosanne Wasserman | "Inuit and Seal" | Sulfur |
| Marjorie Welish | "Respected, Feared, and Somehow Loved" | o•blék |
| Susan Wheeler | "What Memory Reveals" | Sulfur |
| Richard Wilbur | "Trolling for Blues" | Poetry |
| Alan Williamson | "Recitation for Dismantling the Hydrogen Bomb" | American Poetry Review |
| John Yau | "Genghis Chan: Private Eye" | Sulfur |
| Geoffrey Young | "Drive, It Said" | New American Writing |