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The Best American Poetry 1995 once again highlights the dazzling spectrum of style and subject to be found in the art today. Guest editor Richard Howard's accent is on discovery and surprise, and he has gleaned the most inventive and searching writing from a wide variety of literary journals. The themes and imagery here are indisputably "American." From Jody Gladding's "Asparagus" to David Wagoner's "Walt Whitman Bathing," from Lewis Buzbee's languorous "Sunday, Tarzan in His Hammock" to Molly Peacock's ironic "Have You Ever Faked an Orgasm?," our most talented poets continue to mine personal as well as communal experience for their work. As series editor David Lehman eloquently puts it, "To honor 'the best' in any field is perhaps a daring thing to do at a time when many cultural institutions are full of doubt and self-doubt. But it is a dare one may confidently take up. Modern American poetry is a cultural glory on the level of jazz and abstract expressionism. It is constantly renewing and refreshing itself."
The Best American Poetry, a series now in its eighth year, has established itself as a rich and vibrant source of new poetry celebrated in bookstores and on college campuses. Welcome, once again, the memorable voices and unique pleasures of The Best American Poetry. |
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