The Best American Poetry 2012 (40 page)
Read The Best American Poetry 2012 Online
Authors: David Lehman
Fady Joudah: “Tenor” appeared in
Beloit Poetry Journal
and
Poetry Daily.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Joy Katz: “Death Is Something Entirely Else” appeared in
The Cincinnati Review.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
James Kimbrell: “How to Tie a Knot” appeared in
The Cincinnati Review.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Noelle Kocot: “Poem” appeared in
New American Writing.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Maxine Kumin: “Either Or” appeared in
Ploughshares.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Sarah Lindsay: “Hollow Boom Soft Chime: The Thai Elephant Orchestra” appeared in
Poetry.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Amit Majmudar: “The Autobiography of Khwaja Mustasim” appeared in
The New Yorker.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
David Mason: “Mrs. Mason and the Poets” appeared in
The Hudson Review
and
Umbrella.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Kerrin McCadden: “Becca” appeared in
The American Poetry Review.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Honor Moore: “Song” appeared in
The Common.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Michael Morse: “Void and Compensation (Facebook)” appeared in
Ploughshares.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Carol Muske-Dukes: “Hate Mail” appeared in
Boston Review.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Angelo Nikolopoulos: “Daffodil” appeared in
Lambda Literary Review.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Mary Oliver: “In Provincetown, and Ohio, and Alabama” from
Swan.
© 2010 by Mary Oliver. Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press. Also appeared in
Five Points.
Steve Orlen: “Where Do We Go After We Die” appeared in
New Ohio Review.
Reprinted by permission of the literary estate of Steve Orland.
Alicia Ostriker: “Song” appeared in
Poetry
and
Poetry Daily.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Eric Pankey: “Sober Then Drunk Again” appeared in
The Cincinnati Review.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Lucia Perillo: “Samara” from
On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths.
© 2012 by Lucia Perillo. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Copper Canyon Press. Also appeared in
The American Poetry Review.
Robert Pinsky: “Improvisation on Yiddish” appeared in
The Threepenny Review.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Dean Rader: “Self-Portrait as Dido to Aeneas” from
Works & Days.
© 2010 by Dean Rader. Reprinted by permission of Truman State University Press. Also appeared in
The Cincinnati Review.
Spencer Reece: “The Road to Emmaus” appeared in
Poetry.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Paisley Rekdal: “Wax” from
Animal Eye.
© 2012 by Paisley Rekdal. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press. Also appeared in
Witness.
Mary Ruefle: “Middle School” appeared in
Conduit.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Don Russ: “Girl with Gerbil” appeared in
The Cincinnati Review.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Kay Ryan: “Playacting” appeared in
The Threepenny Review.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Mary Jo Salter: “The Gods” appeared in
The Common.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Lynne Sharon Schwartz: “The Afterlife” from
See You in the Dark.
© 2012 by Lynne Sharon Schwartz. Reprinted by permission of Northwestern University Press. Also appeared in
River Styx.
Frederick Seidel: “Rain” appeared in
The New Yorker.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Brenda Shaughnessy: “Artless” from
Our Andromeda.
© 2012 by Brenda Shaughnessy. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Copper Canyon Press. Also appeared in
The New Yorker.
Peter Jay Shippy: “Our Posthumous Lives” appeared in
The Literary Review.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Tracy K. Smith: “Everything That Ever Was” from
Life on Mars.
© 2011 by Tracy K. Smith. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Graywolf Press. Also appeared in
Zoland Poetry.
Bruce Snider: “The Drag Queen Dies in New Castle” appeared in
The Gettysburg Review.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Mark Strand: “The Mysterious Arrival of an Unusual Letter” from
Almost Invisible.
© 2012 by Mark Strand. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Also appeared in
Poetry.
Larissa Szporluk: “Sunflower” from
Traffic with Macbeth.
© 2011 by Larissa Szporluk. Reprinted by permission of Tupelo Press. Also appeared in
Ploughshares.
Daniel Tobin: “The Turnpike” appeared in
Southwest Review.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Natasha Trethewey: “Dr. Samuel Adolphus Cartwright on Dissecting the White Negro, 1851” from
Thrall.
© 2012 by Natasha Trethewey. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Also appeared in
New England Review.
Susan Wheeler: From “The Split” from
Meme.
© 2012 by Susan Wheeler. Reprinted by permission of the University of Iowa Press. Also appeared in
The New Yorker.
Franz Wright: “The Lesson” from
Kindertotenwald.
© 2011 by Franz Wright. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Also appeared in
The Kenyon Review.
David Yezzi: “Minding Rites” appeared in
New Ohio Review.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Dean Young: “Restoration Ode” appeared in
The Gettysburg Review
and
Poetry Daily.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
Kevin Young: “Expecting” appeared in
The New Yorker.
Reprinted by permission of the poet.
MARK DOTY
won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008 for his
Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems.
His nonfiction book
Dog Years
was a
New York Times
bestseller. A professor at Rutgers University, he lives in New York City and on the east end of Long Island.
DAVID LEHMAN
is the author of eight books of poetry, including
When a Woman Loves a Man
. The editor of
The Oxford Book of American Poetry,
he lives in New York City and in Ithaca, New York.
Visit the Best American Poetry website at
www.bestamericanpoetry.com
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1
. Stuart Isacoff, “Anthology by Committee,”
The Wall Street Journal
, April 28, 2011.
2
. Films based on poems by Erin Belieu, Matthew Dickman, K. A. Hays, Jane Hirshfield, L. S. Klatt, James Longenbach, Bridget Lowe, Eric Pankey, Mark Strand, David Wagoner, Richard Wilbur, and the series editor were shown in two public screenings at Open Book in Minneapolis on October 25, 2011.
3
. The issue appeared in December, too late to be considered for this volume.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by David Lehman
Foreword copyright © 2012 by David Lehman
Introduction copyright © 2012 by Mark Doty
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Library of Congress Control Number: 88644281
ISBN 978-1-4391-8153-9
ISBN 978-1-4391-8152-2 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4391-8154-6 (ebook)