The Best American Poetry 2012

by David Lehman

  New Ohio Review, ed. Jill Allyn Rosser. English Department, 360 Ellis Hall, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701.

  The New Yorker, poetry ed. Paul Muldoon. 4 Times Square, New York, NY 10036.

  Ploughshares, poetry ed. John Skoyles. Emerson College, 120 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116-4624.

  Poetry, ed. Christian Wiman. 444 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1850, Chicago, IL 60611-4034.

  Poetry Daily, coeditors Don Selby and Diane Boller. www.poems.com.

  Prairie Schooner, ed. Hilda Raz. 201 Andrews Hall, PO Box 880334, Lincoln, NE 68588-0334.

  River Styx, ed. Richard Newman. 3547 Olive Street, Suite 107, St. Louis, MO 63103.

  Salmagundi, eds. Robert Boyers and Peg Boyers. Skidmore College, 815 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.

  Seneca Review, ed. David Weiss. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, English Department, 101 Demarest Hall, Geneva, NY 14456.

  The Southern Review, poetry ed. Jessica Faust. 3990 West Lakeshore Drive, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70808.

  Southwest Review, ed. Willard Spiegelman. PO Box 750374, Dallas, TX 75275-0374.

  Subtropics, poetry ed. Sidney Wade. PO Box 112075, 4008 Turlington Hall, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-2075.

  The Threepenny Review, ed. Wendy Lesser. PO Box 9131, Berkeley, CA 94709.

  Tin House, poetry ed. Matthew Dickman. PO Box 10500, Portland, OR 97210.

  Umbrella, ed. Kate Bernadette Benedict. www.umbrellajournal.com.

  Witness, poetry ed. Joshua Kryah. Black Mountain Institute, University of Nevada, Box 455085, Las Vegas, NV 89154-5085.

  Zoland Poetry, ed. Roland Pease. www.zolandpoetry.com.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The series editor thanks Mark Bibbins for his invaluable assistance. Warm thanks go also to Stacey Harwood and Stephanie Paterik; to Glen Hartley and Lynn Chu of Writers’ Representatives; and to my editor, Alexis Gargagliano, and her colleagues at Scribner, including Daniel Cuddy, Erich Hobbing, Kelsey Smith, and David Stanford Burr.

  Grateful acknowledgment is made of the magazines in which these poems first appeared and the magazine editors who selected them. A sincere attempt has been made to locate all copyright holders. Unless otherwise noted, copyright to the poems is held by the individual poets.

  Sherman Alexie: “Terminal Nostalgia” appeared in Green Mountains Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Karen Leona Anderson: “Receipt: Midway Entertainment Presents” appeared in Seneca Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Rae Armantrout: “Accounts” appeared in Poetry. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Julianna Baggott: “For Furious Nursing Baby” appeared in The Cincinnati Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  David Baker: “Outside” appeared in The Southern Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Rick Barot: “Child Holding Potato” appeared in Memorious. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Reginald Dwayne Betts: “At the End of Life, a Secret” appeared in New England Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Frank Bidart: “Of His Bones Are Coral Made” appeared in Salmagundi. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Bruce Bond: “Pill” appeared in Colorado Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Stephanie Brown: “Notre Dame” appeared in The American Poetry Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Anne Carson: “Sonnet of Exemplary Sentences” appeared in The Nation. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Jennifer Chang: “Dorothy Wordsworth” appeared in The Nation. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Joseph Chapman: “Sparrow” appeared in The Cincinnati Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Heather Christle: “BASIC” from What Is Amazing. © 2012 by Heather Christle. Reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press. Also appeared in The New Yorker.

  Henri Cole: “Broom” from Touch. © 2011 by Henri Cole. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Also appeared in The Threepenny Review.

  Billy Collins: “Delivery” appeared in Subtropics. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Peter Cooley: “More Than Twice, More Than I Can Count” appeared in Harvard Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Eduardo C. Corral: “To the Angelbeast” from Slow Lightning. © 2011 by Eduardo C. Corral. Reprinted by permission of Yale University Press. Also appeared in Poetry.

  Erica Dawson: “Back Matter” appeared in Barrow Street. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Stephen Dunn: “The Imagined” from Here and Now. © 2011 by Stephen Dunn. Reprinted by permission of W. W. Norton & Co. Also appeared in The New Yorker.

  Elaine Equi: “A Story Begins” appeared in New American Writing. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Robert Gibb: “Spirit in the Dark” from Sheet Music. © 2012 by Robert Gibb. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Autumn House Press. Also appeared in Prairie Schooner.

  Kathleen Graber: “Self-Portrait with No Internal Navigation” appeared in Mead. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Amy Glynn Greacen: “Helianthus annuus (Sunflower)” appeared in New England Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  James Allen Hall: “One Train’s Survival Depends on the Other Derailed” appeared in New England Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Terrance Hayes: “The Rose Has Teeth” appeared in Tin House. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Steven Heighton: “Collision” from Patient Frame. © 2010 by Steven Heighton. Reprinted by permission of House of Anansi Press. Also appeared in The Literary Review.

  Brenda Hillman: “Moaning Action at the Gas Pump” appeared in Gulf Coast. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Jane Hirshfield: “In a Kitchen Where Mushrooms Were Washed” appeared in Ploughshares. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Richard Howard: “A Proposed Curriculum Change” appeared in The Antioch Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Marie Howe: “Magdalene—The Seven Devils” appeared in The American Poetry Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Amorak Huey: “Memphis” appeared in The Southern Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Jenny Johnson: “Aria” appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  Lawrence Joseph: “So Where Are We?” appeared in Granta. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

  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 permissi
on 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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  First Scribner edition September 2012

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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)