Poets of the New CenturyIntroduction by Jack Myers xvii

Ralph Angle Twilight 1

Twice Removed 1

Months Later 2

Untitled 3

Robin Becker Why We Fear the Amish Midnight at the Third

Street Sculpture Garden 3

Sisters in Perpetual Motion 5

Rustic Portrait 6

Robin Behn Interlude: Still Still 7

Whether or Not There Are Apples 8

Elegy for Lessons 9

Dark Yellow Poem 11

Stephen Berg The Chair 12

Nights at the Cedar 14

All I Can Say 14

Linda Bierds Burning the Fields 15

The Lacemaker’s Condenser 17

The Suicide of Clover Adams: 1885 18

Marianne Boruch The Vietnam Birthday Lottery, 197 19

Piano Tuning 21

X-ray Vision 22

Smoking 22

Marcus Cafagan The Cockroaches of Tuol Sleng Museum 23

Gloomy Sunday 25

Haldol 26

Crack 26

Billy Collins Genious 27

The Country 28

Absence 29

Velocity 29

Today 31

Peter Cooley A Place Made of Starlight 31

For Jude the Obscure 33

Brothers’ Keeperss 33

To My Hypocrite Reader 34

God Comes in a Dream to Cure a Suppliant 35

Robert Cording Gratitude 36

Fashions Shoot, Frijoles Canyon 37

Memorial Day 38

Moths 39

Mark Cox Red Lead, 1978 40

After the Sea, Parts, My Daughter Walks Among Gravestones 41

Craig Crist-Evans Heat 44

Morphine 44

First Solo Flight 45

Jim Daniels The Day After 47

My Mother’s See-Through Blouse 48

Brown’s Farm 49

Night-Light 51

Greg Delanty The Bindi Mirror 52

Ululu 53

The Stilt Fisherman 53

Tagging the Stealer 54

Alison Hawthorne Biophilia 55

Deming God 57

Toi Derricotte Clitoris 58

Dead Baby Speaks 58

Deborah Digges Two of the Lost Five Foolish Vergins 63

The Rainbow Bridge in the Painting of the Sung Dynasty 65

Guillotine Windows 66

Stephen Dobyns Unexpected Holiday 68

(Often, In Dreams, He Moved) 69

(That Day He Spend Hours) 70

Mystery, So Long 70

Mark Doty At the Gym 71

Fish-R-Us 72

From “An Island Sheaf”:

1. Sea Grape Valentine 75

2. Watermelon Soda 75

Norman Dubie On the Chinese Abduction of Tibet’s Child

Panchen Lama 76

A Genesis Text for Larry Levis, Who Died Alone 78

The Caste Wife Speaks to the Enigmatic Parabolas 79

Elegy My Brother 80

Stephen Dunn The Death of God 81

Nature 82

Different Hours 83

A Postmortem Guide 84

Stuart Dybek Inspiration 85

Vigil 86

Narcisussus 87

Overhead Fan 87

Nancy Eimers Exam 88

Outer Space 90

Passing Things 92

Lynn Emanuel The Instruction Manual 93

The White Dress 94

She 94

Walt, I Salute You! 95

Beth Ann Fennelly Madame! Describes the Seige of Paris 96

Alice Fulton Split the Lark 100

Tess Gallagher One Kiss 105

When the Enemy is Illiterate 105

Invaded by Souls 106

Laughter and Stars 108

Jody Gladding Rooms and Their Airs (Camere et AeriPsius) 109

White Asparagus 110

Albert Goldbarth What We’re Used to 112

Imps 113

Ancestor-Bank Is the Overspreading

Spirit of this Poem 115

Beckain Fritz Refugees 117

Goldberg Twentieth-Century Children (5): Blood-Kissing 118

Torture Boy’s Watch, Burn Boy’s Boat of Souls 118

Retro Lullaby 119

Barry Goldensohn Law and Sensibility 120

The Bat 121

Lao Tzu Rebuked 122

The Summer I spent Screwing in the Back Seats of Station

Wagons 122

Rest 123

Eamon Grennan Lesson 124

Artists at Work 124

Heart Attack 125

Approximation 7 126

Mark Halliday Wrong Poem 127

Frankfort Laundromat 128

Your Visit to Drettinghob 128

Parkersburg 130

Daniel Halpern Zeno’s Lemur 131

Desperados 131

Her Body 132

The Eternal Light to Talk 135

Joy Harjo The Path to the Milky Way Leads Through Los Angles 136

Song from the House of Death, or How to Make It Through to

The End of a Relationship 137

This is My Heart 139

The End 140

Jeffery Harrison Our Other Sister 141

Sex and Poetry 142

Rowing 143

A Shave by the Ganges 143

My Double Non-Conversion 144

Swifts at Evening 145

Bob Hicock The Party 146

Miscarriage and Echo 148

Birth of a Saint 149

Neither Here no There 150

Richard Higgerson The Strong Yet Hollow Life Force of Hot Tub Jesus 152

Evel Knieval: The Foundation at Caesar’s Palace, (151 feet 6

inches) Las Vegas, Nevada, September 4th, 1968 153

Blanket on Grass 155

Lullaby Rub 157

Brenda Hillman From “Thicket Group” A Power 158

Empty Spires 159

A Window 159

The Thicket 160

Edward Hirsch Ethics of Twilight 161

Colette 161

Days of 1968 163

Ocean of Grass 163

Tony Hoagland Wind chime 164

Lawrence 164

Benevolence 166

How It Adds Up 166

Jonathan Holden Teaching My Son to Drive 167

Integrals 168

The Third Party 169

Such Beauty 170

David Huddle Model Father 172

For Love 176

For Dora Mas 176

The Rapture 178

Richard Jackson Do Not Duplicates This Key 179

CXXXII: The Quandary 172

Terzanelle of Kosove Fields 182

No Turn on Red 183

Mark Jarman Dialect 185

Goya’s Saint PeterRepentant 187

You Lucky People 187

Unholy Sonnet 188

Richard Jones The Storm 189

The Fear 189

The Freight 190

Father’s Day 191

Rodney Jones Sacrament of My Penis 192

Elegy for a B ad Example 192

Nihilist Time 193

Raccoon Time 193

Richard Katrovas ON the Day After Allen Ginsberg’s Death a Woman Thinks of

Me 195

Love Poem for an Enemy 196

The Turn 197

Brigit Pegeen Kelly Black Swan 198

Elegy 199

Two Boys 200

Yusef Komunyakaa Outside The Bule Nile 202

Queen Marie-Theresa & Nabo 204

Forgive & Live 206

Sydney Lea Inviting the Moose: A Vision 208

Conspiracy Theory 209

November 211

Timothy Liu Western Wars Mitigated by the Confucian Analects 212

Many Mansions 213

Georgia O’Keefe: American Icon 214

Emptying the Mind 214

Robert Long Little Black Dino 215

Jack Benny 217

Nowhere to Mosh 217

Love Potion No. 9 218

Adrian Louis One of the Grim Reaper’s Disguises 217

Indian Sign Language 219

Dead Skoonk 221

Old Friend in the Dark 221

Victor Martinez I’m Still Alive 222

Failed Teachers 224

Sisters 224

A Tiny Man of Print 225

Compbell Mc Grath Capitalist Poem # 38 226

Capitalist Poem # 36 227

The Manatee 227

The Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial 227

Heather McHugh Ghazal of the Better-Unbegun 230

Past All Understanding 231

The Gulf Between the Given and the Gift 232

Qu Que Que 232

Lynne McMahon We Take Our Children to Ireland 233

Marriage Dissolving in the Upstairs Room 234

These Same, These Many Birds 235

Christopher Merrill Because 236

Three Weeds 237

Words 238

Doppelganger 238

Susan Mitchell Pussy Willow (An Apology) 239

Girl Tearing Up Her Face 241

The Young Asian Women 246

Immigration Angel 247

Jack Myers Narcissus 248

Taking the Children Away 249

On Sitting 250

Bread, Meat, Greens, and Soap 251

Naomi Shihab Nye Mona’s Taco 252

Bill’s Beans 253

Knitting, Crocheting, Sewing… 253

Ongoing 255

William Oslen Deer Trffic 255

Electric Church 257

Fear in Style 258

St. Ives, Winter Night 259

Steve Orlen Monkey Mind 260

Happy As I Am 261

Frankie Paino The Old Religion 264

The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian 265

Alchemy 266

Robert Pinsky Samuri Song 268

The Green Pinao 269

The Haunted Ruin 270

To Television 271

Keith Ratzalff Group Portrait with Ukuleles 273

Fiftul Angel 274

Table Prayer 275

Victoria Redel The Bounty 277

Tilted Man, Tilted Woman 278

Intact Woman 280

Alberto Rios From the Life of Don Margartio 281

Writing from Memory 282

Some Extensions on the Sovereignty of Science 283

David Rivard Versace 285

Questions for the Magic Hour 285

Jung 286

Pattiann Rogers Murder in the Good Land 288

Reiteration 289

Opus from Space 290

Come, Drink Here 290

Lee Ann Ropripaugh Transplanting 292

Jill Allyn Rosser Lover Release Agreement 296

Resurfaced 296

Quest of the Prell 298

Clare Rossini Brief History of a Sentence 300

Rice Country Soliloquy 301

“Why Talk When You Can Paint” 302

Eve to Adam, in Retrospect 304

Mary Ruefle Seven Postcards from Dover 304

No Comparison 306

10 April 306

Among the Musk Ox People 307

Michael Ryan My Other Self 308

Against Self-Torment 310

Complete Semen Study 310

In the Sink 312

Ira Sadoff On the Day of Nixon’s Funeral 312

My Mother’s Funeral 314

Lzzy 314

Delirious 315

Natasha Saje Why I Won’t Pierce My Ears 316

I am peeling four pink grapefruit 317

Wonders of the Invisible World 318

Story of a Marriage 319

Sherod Santos Romeo & Juliet 319

The Book of Blessings 320

Illuminated Manuscript 312

The Taking Cure 321

Philip Schutz The Displaced 324

The Extra 325

In Medias Res 326

The Holy Worm of Praise 327

Maureen Seaton The Zen of Crime 328

Whining Prairie 329

Miss Molly Rockin in the House of Blue Light 330

Women Circling Lake 311

Lateral Light 330

The Freezing Point of the Universe 332

Betsy Sholl Half the Music 333

Queen of the Night 335

Late Psalm 336

Jane Shore The Yawner 338

I Dream About My Dead 341

Tom Sleigh Newsreel 343

The Grid 345

William Loran Smith Speaking Louder 346

Hairspray 347

The Family Man 348

Gray Soto Raisin Factory 350

Devising Your Own Time 351

Teaching English From an Old Composition Book 352

Late Confession 353

Maura Stanton Practicing Tai Chi Ch’uan 354

Post human 355

Outside St. Remy-de-Provence 357

Searches 357

David St. John Merlin 358

Los Angles, 1954 359

I Know 361

Kevin Stein Beanstalk 361

Because I Wanted to Write a Happy Poem, I Thought of Harry

Caray’s Dying 363

Confessional 364

Arthur Sze The String Diamond 366

Jmes Tate A Knock on the Door 370

Never Again the Same 370

The New Ergonomics 371

How the Pope Is Chosen 372

Richard Tillinghast Exilium 374

Incident 375

Southbound Pullman, 1954 375

The Alley Behind Ocean Drive 376

Chase Twichell Road Tar 377

Erotic Energy 378

A Last Look Back 378

To the Reader: If You Asked Me 379

To the Reader: Polaroids 379

Decade 380

Leslie Ullman Calypso, Twilight 381

Neap Tide 383

Estrogen 382

Martha Modena Iron Brigade Highway 385

Night of the Moon 387

Conjures in Amber 388

Charles Harper Webb “Did That Really Happen” 389

To Prove That We Existed Before You Were Born 390

Tone of Voice 391

Funktionslust 392

Biblical Also-Voice 393

Bruce Weigl One of the Wives of God 394

Elegy of Matthews 396

The Super 397

Roger Weingarten Into the Mouth of the Rat 400

Dara Wier One Enchanted Evening 405

Catholic 406

Prayer That the Rod of the Prede Stined Spouse May Blossom 407

Apology for the Further Explanation of an Attempt to Divert

Accusations of Equivocation 408

Valerie Wolfed Between Zero and Ten 409

Yad 410

The Drowning and the Drowned 411

Conundrum 412

David Wojahn Excavation Photo 413

Stalin’s Library Card 414

Carolyne Wright The Room 418

The Conjure Woman 420

Note from the Stop-Gap Motor Inn 422

C.D. Wright Floating Lady Retablo 423

Floating Lady Retablo 423

Handfishing Retablo 124

Handfishing Retablo 124

Rosesucker Retablo 424

Rosesucker Retablo 425

Dean Yound Today’s Visibility 425

Howl Upone Eskaping, I Learne Mey Vehikle is Not Sea-

Wortie & Upon Mey Tragik Recaptue & Longe Internmynt

During Wyche I Wrighte These Words Thorogh a Secret

System Infolfing Mey Owne Blood 426

Lives of the Painters 427

Sunflower 427

Side Effects 429

Kevin Young Warhol Attends Roy Cohn’s Final Birthday Part at the

Palladium, June 1985 431

Negative 432

Campbell’s Black Bean Soup 433

Acknowledgments 435