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Binding: Turtleback
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.008
EAN: 9780606192088
ISBN: 0606192085
Label: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media
Manufacturer: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media
Number Of Items: 1
Publication Date: 2000-10
Publisher: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media
Studio: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media

Amid an "explosion in the interest of poetry nationwide" (The New York Times), The Best American Poetry 2000 delivers one of the finest volumes yet in this renowned series. The appearance of poems on Web sites, bus and subway placards, highway billboards, and TV sitcoms and commercials testifies to the resurgence in the popularity of poetry today. Yet there is something transcendent, series editor David Lehman writes in his foreword, about "the pleasures of the tangible book...which you can annotate as you peruse, and which shall in time occupy its destined place on the shelf where you keep a record of your history as a reader." The Best American Poetry 2000 will surely hold a treasured place on the shelves of longtime poetry fans and those new to its joys.

Guest editor Rita Dove, one of the most prominent figures in the poetry world and the second African-American poet ever to win the Pulitzer Prize, brings all of her dynamism and well-honed acumen to bear on this project. Dove used a simple yet exacting method to make her selections: "The final criterion," she writes in her introduction, "was Emily Dickinson's famed description -- if I felt that the top of my head had been taken off, the poem was in." The result is a marvelous collection of consistently high-quality poems diverse in form, tone, style, stance, and subject matter. Ranging from the traditional to the experimental, the volume embraces established masters such as Mary Oliver, Derek Walcott, and Richard Wilbur; contemporary crowd pleasers like Billy Collins, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Robert Pinsky; and a number of irresistible newcomers. It is a gathering that will bring readers to what Dove calls "the still center of being that good poetry awakens." And, in a special feature marking the new millennium, the series' current and past editors have nominated their candidates for the Best American Poems of the Twentieth Century, helping to make The Best American Poetry 2000 this year's must-have book for all poetry lovers.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: An Exceptional Read
Review: David Lehman is one of the most facinating writers, poets, and editors that I have ever read. He is the author of The Daily Mirror, a wonderful and well penned selection of poems.

I believe his perspective and talent for finding the best poets lies in his experience. Mr.Lehman is a great editor and any reader who chooses to pick up and read this book will be thankful.

One can learn so much from the writers and makers of The Best American Poetry books. I also recommend, his most recent book, The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets. I give all these books 5 stars!

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: American Poems That The Editor Really Liked
Review: Above is my proposed title for this series; as you can see, I am not a marketing genius. The series is called "Best of" because it needs to sell, and I am all for that if it gets a few more copies off the shelves. I would propose one more change other than the title, although related: replace the Contributors' Comments (though not the Notes) with comments by the editor. The "Best" anthologies are fun not just for the poems included, but also as a reflection the editors' taste. A paragraph or two explaining the merits of each poem and the reason for inclusion would not only create a small portrait of the editor, but would provide another way to consider the anthology as a whole. The Introduction is too short, and the poets' often banal comments about their own work add nothing to a form that should stand self-contained and alone.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Didn't like this one
Review: This was suppose to be a collection of the best poetry in 2000, but i don't feel the same way, I couldn't get into the poetry that was picked for this collection of poetry. I give it two stars because of the poems by Frank X. Gaspar, Forrest Hamer, and Cathy Song.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Author knows a winner
Review: As the author of Blue Street, a new book of romantic poetry, I know how important it is to read other writers' work and absorb other styles. The Best American Poetry is a great collection of works and reading it helped define my style. I recommend it to anyone.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Among the Best Bets
Review: Picking the best involves making bets, and one reason I like this series is the willingness of the editors to make big wagers. This year's volume gives me plenty to like -- including poets I'd not previously encountered (like Linh Dinh, Christopher Edgar, Olena Kalytiak Davis) as well as familiar names (Ammons, Merwin, Wilbur). Any book that can span the gamut from radically chic Michael Palmer on one end to prim Mary Jo Salter on the other is a perfect paradigm of psotmodern values. (Did I really write that?)The concluding section in the book, where the editors of the series going back to John Ashbery pick their favorite poems of the 20th century, is not only fun, it performs an important service in directing attention to great poems easily overlooked. As always I look forward with huge interest to next year's volume. This anthology quickens the appetite for more, always more.

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