# The Best American Poetry 1997

The Best American Poetry 1997, a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor James Tate.

## Poets and poems included

| Poet | Poem | Where poem previously appeared |
| Ai | "Back in the World" | Quarterly West |
| Sherman Alexie | "The Exaggeration of Despair" | Urbanus |
| Agha Shahid Ali | "Return to Harmony 3" | Verse |
| A. R. Ammons | from "Strip" | The Paris Review |
| Nin Andrews | "That Cold Summer" | Ploughshares |
| L. S. Asekoff | "Rounding the Horn" | American Poetry Review |
| John Ashbery | "The Problem of Anxiety" | Arshile |
| Marianne Boruch | "Camouflage" | Shenandoah |
| Catherine Bowman | "No Sorry" | TriQuarterly |
| Joseph Brodsky | "Love Song" | The New Republic |
| Stephanie Brown | "Feminine Intuition" | American Poetry Review |
| Joshua Clover | "The Map Room" | Iowa Review |
| Billy Collins | "Lines Lost Among Trees " | Poetry |
| Gillian Conoley | "The Sky Drank In" | American Letters & Commentary |
| Jayne Cortez | "The Heavy Headed Dance" | Hanging Loose |
| Robert Creeley | "Won't It Be Fine?" | Grand Street |
| Carl Dennis | "History" | The New Republic |
| William Dickey | "The Death of John Berryman" | Poetry |
| Robert Dow | "How Should I Say This?" | The Massachusetts Review |
| Thomas Sayers Ellis | "Atomic Bride" | Ploughshares |
| Irving Feldman | "You Know What I'm Saying?" | Poetry |
| Herman Fong | "Asylum" | The Gettysburg Review |
| Dick Gallup | "Backing into the Future" | The World |
| Martin Galvin | "Introductions" | Poetry |
| Amy Gerstler | "A Fan Letter" | American Poetry Review |
| Allen Ginsberg | "Is About" | The New Yorker |
| Dana Gioia | "The Litany" | The Hudson Review |
| Elton Glaser | "Smoking" | Shenandoah |
| Kate Gleason | "After Fighting for Hours" | Green Mountains Review |
| Albert Goldbarth | "Complete with Starry Night and Bourbon Shots" | Quarterly West |
| Jorie Graham | "Thinking" | The New Republic |
| Donald Hall | "The Porcelain Couple" | The New Yorker |
| Daniel Halpern | "Her Body" | Ploughshares |
| Robert Hass | "Interrupted Meditation" | Colorado Review |
| Bob Hicok | "Heroin" | Indiana Review |
| Paul Hoover | "California" | The New Republic |
| Christine Hume | "Helicopter Wrecked on a Hill" | Denver Quarterly |
| Harry Humes | "The Butterfly Effect" | The Gettysburg Review |
| Don Hymans | "Passacaglia" | Colorado Review |
| Lawson Fusao Inada | "Making It Stick" | Many Mountains Moving |
| Richard Jackson | "The Poem That Was Once Called "Desperate" But Is Now Striving to Become the Perfect Love Poem" | North American Review |
| Gray Jacobik | "Dust Storm" | Ploughshares |
| George Kalamaras | "Mud" | New Letters |
| Jennifer L. Knox | "The Bright Light of Responsibility" | Exquisite Corpse (magazine) |
| Philip Kobylarz | "A Bill, Posted" | Poetry |
| Yusef Komunyakaa | "Jeanne Duval's Confession" | Black Warrior Review |
| Elizabeth Kostova | "Suddenly I Realized I Was Sitting" | Another Chicago Magazine |
| Denise Levertov | "The Change" | Seneca Review |
| Larry Levis | "Anastasia and Sandman" | American Poetry Review |
| Matthew Lippman | "Hallelujah Terrible" | Seneca Review |
| Beth Lisick | "Empress of Sighs" | Clockwatch Review |
| Khaled Mattawa | "Heartsong" | Ploughshares |
| William Matthews | "Vermin" | The New Yorker |
| Josip Novakovich | "Shadow" | Another Chicago Magazine |
| Geoffrey Nutter | from "A Summer Evening" | Denver Quarterly |
| Catie Rosemurgy | "Mostly Mick Jagger" | Cream City Review |
| Clare Rossini | "Valediction" | Poetry |
| Mary Ruefle | "Topophilia" | American Poetry Review |
| Hillel Schwartz | "Recruiting Poster" | Shenandoah |
| Maureen Seaton | "Fiddleheads" | Green Mountains Review |
| Vijay Seshadri | "Lifeline" | The Paris Review |
| Steven Sherrill | "Katyn Forest" | Another Chicago Magazine |
| Charles Simic | "The Something" | The New Yorker |
| Charlie Smith | "Beds" | Poetry |
| Leon Stokesbury | "Evening's End" | The Kenyon Review |
| Mark Strand | "Morning, Noon and Night" | The Times Literary Supplement |
| Jack Turner | "The Plan" | Poetry |
| Karen Volkman | "Infernal" | Chelsea |
| Derek Walcott | "Italian Eclogues" | The New York Review of Books |
| Rosanna Warren | "Diversion" | The New Republic |
| Lewis Warsh | "Downward Mobility" | The World |
| Terence Winch | "Shadow Grammar" | The World |
| Eve Wood | "Recognition" | Santa Monica Review |
| Charles Wright | "Disjecta Membra" | American Poetry Review |
| Dean Young | "Frottage" | The Gettysburg Review |