I was a little underwhelmed with this year's selection, mostly with some of the overtly political poems. I thought David Lehman's introduction was very good and was, as usual, temporarily overcome with optimism about the state of American poetry that will fade, I'm sure, by next November, just in time for Lehman to prop me up again.

My favorite poems in the anthology were:

1. "Freud" by James Cummins: a wide-ranging sestina that I feel provides a good counterpoint to the anti-Freud double abecedarian published in Best American by Julie Larios a few years ago. . .

2. "Zones" by Albert Goldbarth: any poet who is courageous enough to write about love and the universe gets my vote. . .

3. "What I Think of Death, If Anyone's Asking" by Maud Kelley: love, the universe, and cows in a field.

4. "Heartlines" by Alexandra Teague: a morning-after poem that's really about the speaker's parents

5. "No Pegasus" by Ronald Wallace: as sad and lovely as an ars poetica should be.