# The Best American Poetry 1996

The Best American Poetry 1996, a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Adrienne Rich.

## Poets and poems included

| Poet | Poem | Where poem previously appeared |
| Latif Asad Abdullah | "The Tombs" | Extracts from Pelican Bay |
| Sherman Alexie | "Capital Punishment" | Indiana Review |
| Margaret Atwood | "Morning in the Burned House" | North American Review |
| Thomas Avena | "Cancer Garden" | The Occident |
| Marie Annharte Baker | "Porkskin Panorama" | Callaloo |
| Sidney Burris | "Strong's Winter" | The Southern Review |
| Rosemary Catacalos | "David Talamantez on the Last Day of Second Grade" | The Texas Observer |
| Marilyn Chin | "Cauldron" | The Kenyon Review |
| Wanda Coleman | "American Sonnet (35)" | River City |
| Jacqueline Dash | "Me Again" | In Time |
| Ingrid de Kok | "Transfer" | TriQuarterly |
| William Dickey | "The Arrival of the Titanic" | Poetry |
| Nancy Eimers | "A Night Without Stars" | Alaska Review Quarterly |
| Nancy Eimers | "A History of Navigation" | Poetry Northwest |
| Martin Espada | "Rednecks" | Ploughshares |
| Martin Espada | "Sleeping on the Bus" | The Progressive |
| Beth Ann Fennelly | "Poem Not to Be Read at Your Wedding" | Farmer's Market |
| Robert C. Fuentes | "In This Place" | Extracts from Pelican Bay |
| Rámon Garcia, Salmo | "Para El" | The Americas Review |
| Suzanne Gardinier | "Two Girls" | The American Voice |
| Frank Gaspar | "Kapital" | The Kenyon Review |
| Reginald Gibbons | "White Beach" | The Southern Review |
| C. S. Giscombe | "All (Facts, Stories, Chance)" | River Styx |
| Kimiko Hahn | "Possession: A Zuihitsu" | Another Chicago Magazine |
| Gail Hanlon | "Plainsong" | Poetry Flash |
| Henry Hart | "The Prisoner of Camau" | Beloit Poetry Journal |
| William Heyen | "The Steadying" | Triquarterly |
| Jonathan Johnson | "Renewal" | Cream City Review |
| Jane Kenyon | "Reading Aloud to My Father" | Poetry |
| August Kleinzahler | "Two Canadian Landscapes" | Private |
| Yusef Komunyakaa | "Nude Study" | The Kenyon Review |
| Stanley Kunitz | "Touch Me" | The New Yorker |
| Natasha Le Bel | "Foot Fire Burn Dance" | Hanging Loose |
| Natasha Le Bel | "Boxing the Female" | Hanging Loose |
| Carolyn Lei-Lanilau | "Kolohe or Communication" | Manoa |
| Valerie Martínez | "It Is Not" | Prairie Schooner |
| Davis McCombs | "The River and Under the River" | No Roses Review |
| Sandra McPherson | "Edge Effect" | Poetry |
| James Merrill | "b o d y" | The New York Times |
| W. S. Merwin | "Lament for the Makers" | Poetry |
| Jane Miller | "Far Away" | Colorado Review |
| Susan Mitchell | "Girl Tearing Up Her Face" | The Paris Review |
| Pat Mora | "Mangos y limones" | Prairie Schooner |
| Alice Notley | "One of the Longest Times" | Fourteen Hills |
| Naomi Shihab Nye | "The Small Vases from Hebron" | Many Mountains Moving |
| Alicia Ostriker | "The Eighth and Thirteenth" | Poetry Flash |
| Raymond Patterson | "Harlem Suite" | Drumvoices Revue |
| Carl Phillips | "As From a Quiver of Arrows" | The Atlantic Monthly |
| Wing Ping | "Song of Calling Souls" | Sulfur |
| Sterling Plumpp | "Poet and When the Spirit Spray-Paints the Sky" | TriQuarterly |
| Katherine Alice Power | "Sestina for Jaime" | In Time |
| Reynolds Price | "Twenty-One Years" | The Southern Review |
| Alberto Alvaro Ríos | "Domingo Limón" | Prairie Schooner |
| Pattiann Rogers | "Abundance and Satisfaction" | Iowa Review |
| Quentin Rowan | "Prometheus at Coney Island" | Hanging Loose |
| David Shapiro | "For the Evening Land" | Lingo |
| Angela Shaw | "Crepuscule" | Poetry |
| Reginald Shepherd | "Skin Trade" | Ploughshares |
| Enid Shomer | "Passive Resistance" | Poetry |
| Gary Soto | "Fair Trade" | Prairie Schooner |
| Jean Starr | "Flight" | Callaloo |
| Deborah Stein | "heat" | Hanging Loose |
| Roberta Tejada | "Honeycomb perfection of this form before me..." | Sulfur |
| Chase Twichell | "Aisle of Dogs" | Iowa Review |
| Luís Alberto Urrea | "Ghost Sickness" | Many Mountains Moving |
| Jean Valentine | "Tell Me, What Is the Soul" | The New Yorker |
| Alma Luz Villanueva | "Crazy Courage" | Prairie Schooner |
| Karen Volkman | "The Case" | The Paris Review |
| Diane Wakoski | "The Butcher's Apron" | Many Mountains Moving |
| Ron Welburn | "Yellow Wolf Spirit" | Callaloo |
| Susan Wheeler | "Run on a Warehouse" | The Paris Review |
| Paul Wilis | "Meeting Like This" | Weber Studies |
| Anne Winters | "The Mill-Race" | TriQuarterly |
| C. Dale Young | "Vespers" | The Southern Review |
| Ray A. Young Bear | "Our Bird Aegis" | Callaloo |