# The Best American Poetry 1998

The Best American Poetry 1998, a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor John Hollander.

## Poets and poems included

| Poet | Poem | Where poem previously appeared |
| Jonathan Aaron | "Mr. Moto's Confession" | The New Republic |
| Agha Shahid Ali | "The Floating Post Office" | The Kenyon Review |
| Dick Allen | "The Cove" | The Hudson Review |
| A. R. Ammons | "Now Then" | Michigan Quarterly Review |
| Daniel Anderson | "A Possum's Tale" | Raritan |
| James Applewhite | "Botanical Garden: The Coastal Plains" | The Southern Review |
| Craig Arnold | "Hot" | Poetry |
| Sarah Arvio | from "Visits from the Seventh" | The Paris Review |
| John Ashbery | "Wakefulness"] | The New Yorker |
| Frank Bidart | "The Second Hour of the Night" | The Threepenny Review |
| Robert Bly | "A Week of Poems at Bennington" | AGNI |
| George Bradley | "In an Old Garden" | The New Yorker |
| John Bricuth | from "Just Let me Say This About That" | Southwest Review |
| Anne Carson | "TV Men: Antigone (Scripts 1 and 2)" | The Paris Review |
| Turner Cassity | "Symbol of the Faith" | Southwest Review |
| Henri Cole | "Self-Portrait as Four Styles of Pompeian Wall Painting" | The New Republic |
| Billy Collins | "Lines Composed Over Three Thousand Miles from Tintern Abbey" | Poetry |
| Alfred Corn | "Jaffa" | New England Review |
| James Cummins | "Echo" | The Antioch Review |
| Thomas M. Disch | "What Else Is There" | Poetry |
| Denise Duhamel | "The Difference Between Pepsi and Pope" | Salt Hill |
| Lynn Emanuel | "Like God" | Boston Review |
| Irving Feldman | "Movietime" | The Kenyon Review |
| Emily Fragos | "Apollo's Kiss" | Chelsea (magazine) |
| Debora Greger | "Mass in B Minor" | New England Review |
| Allen Grossman | "Weird River" | Partisan Review |
| Thom Gunn | "To Cupid" | The New Yorker |
| Marilyn Hacker | "Again, The River" | Ploughshares |
| Rachel Hadas | "Pomegranate Variations" | The Kenyon Review |
| Donald Hall | "Letter with No Address" | Ploughshares |
| Joseph Harrison | "The Cretonnes of Penelope" | The Paris Review |
| Anthony Hecht | "Rara Avis in Terris" | The New Republic |
| Daryl Hine | "The World Is Everything That Is the Case" | Poetry |
| Edward Hirsch | "The Lectures on Love" | The Paris Review |
| Richard Howard | "The Job Interview" | The New Republic |
| Andrew Hudgins | "The Hanging Gardens" | River Styx |
| Mark Jarman | "The Word "Answer" | Connecticut Review |
| Donald Justice | "Stanzas on a Hidden Theme" | The New Yorker |
| Brigit Pegeen Kelly | "The Orchard" | New England Review |
| Karl Kirchwey | "Roman Hours" | The Yale Review |
| Carolyn Kizer | "Second Time Around" | Michigan Quarterly Review |
| Kenneth Koch | "Ballade" | The Yale Review |
| John Koethe | "The Secret Amplitude" | Southwest Review |
| Rika Lesser | "About Her" | Poetry |
| Phillis Levin | "Ontological" | The New Criterion |
| Philip Levine | "Drum" | Michigan Quarterly Review |
| Rebecca McClanahan | "Making Love" | The Gettysburg Review |
| J. D. McClatchy | "Descartes's Dream" | Southwest Review |
| Heather McHugh | "Past All Understanding" | Denver Quarterly |
| Sandra McPherson | "Chalk-Circle Compass" | Poetry |
| W. S. Merwin | "The Chinese Mountain Fox" | The Yale Review |
| Robert Mezey | "Joe Simpson [ 1919-1996]" | The New Yorker |
| A. F. Moritz | "Artisan and Clerk" | The Yale Review |
| Thylias Moss | "The Right Empowerment of Light" | Michigan Quarterly Review |
| William Mullen | "Enchanted Rock" | The Yale Review |
| Eric Ormsby | "Flamingos" | The Gettysburg Review |
| Jacqueline Osherow | "Views of La Leggenda della Vera Croce" | Western Humanities Review |
| Robert Pinsky | "Ode to Meaning" | The Threepenny Review |
| Reynolds Price | "The Closing, the Ecstasy" | Poetry |
| Wyatt Prunty | "March" | Connecticut Review |
| Stephen Sandy | "Four Corners, Vermont" | The New Republic |
| Alan Shapiro | "The Coat" | Ploughshares |
| Robert B. Shaw | "A Geode" | The Hudson Review |
| Charles Simic | "Ambiguity's Wedding" | FIELD |
| Mark Strand | "The View" | The London Review of Books |
| James Tate | "Dream On" | American Poetry Review |
| Sidney Wade | "A Calm November. Sunday in the Fields." | Denver Quarterly |
| Derek Walcott | "Signs" | Conjunctions |
| Rosanna Warren | "'Departure'" | The New Republic |
| Rachel Wetzsteon | "from "Home and Away"" | The Paris Review |
| Susan Wheeler | "Shanked on the Red Bed" | The New Yorker |
| Richard Wilbur | "For C." | The New Yorker |
| C. K. Williams | "The Bed" | Ontario Review |
| Greg Williamson | "The Dark Days" | The Yale Review |
| Charles Wright | "Returned to the Yaak Cabin, I Overhear an Old Greek Song" | Poetry |