The Best American Poetry 2002

by David Lehman (Editor), Robert Creeley (Editor)

A latest installment of the popular annual series includes works by such writers as Adrienne Rich, Anne Carson, and Anselm Berrigan, and features additional commentary on many of the pieces as well as a modern assessment of poetry today.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies, American

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

David Lehman is a poet and the series editor for The Best American Poetry series. He teaches at The New School in New York City.

Reviews

[B. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Overall, I would give this collection a C+ average (technically an 77.9% avg.) as far as the quality of the poems contained. I know that attempting to quantify poetic effect/value is a ridiculous gesture, but I am simply a ridiculous person. Of course, this is purely based off of my own tastes and will not necessarily reflect your average satisfaction rate. I started a mission in October of 2016 to read the entire Best American Poetry series so that I can begin to get a better sense of (A) what my taste in poetry is, and (B) my own poetic voice.

This is the second "worst" edition of BAP that I have read so far. While not quite as mediocre as 2004, Creeley's selections for 2002 are still something of a disappointment. While I appreciate the values and techniques that Creeley cultivates and promotes as a poet, I cannot really stand more than a dose here and there as a reader. There is a Gustaf Sobin poem in this edition, one of my favorites that Creeley had to offer, titled "In Way of Introduction" that describes the tone of many of the inferior (at least for my sensibilities) poems in this volume:

"poems are about. yours, though,
yours, it would seem, are
a-
bout the process of their own
depletion: about, one might assume, the sheer a-

boutlessness of being"

In the end, too many of these poems, much like BAP 2004, suffer from a bad case of aboutlessness. Unfortunately, the case is terminal. Below are the poems I recommend from this volume. Scour the internet for them and save your money by not buying this edition. However, the introduction by Lehman (reflecting on 9/11 and poetry) and even Creeley's introduction are definitely worth digging into. It felt strange reading about the cultural impact of a major historical event that I actually lived through.

Masterpieces (5)
Theodore Enslin, Moon Cornering
Clayton Eshleman, Animals out of the Snow
Jeffrey Franklin, To a Student Who Reads 'The Second Coming' as Sexual Autobiography
Gustaf Sobin, In Way of Introduction
John Taggart, Call

Masterful (6)
Elizabeth Biller Chapman, On the Screened Porch
D. Nurkse, Snapshot from Niagara
Sharon Olds, Frontis Nulla Fides
Pam Rehm, 'A roof is no guarantee...'
Nathan Whiting, In Charge
John Yau, A Sheath of Pleasant Voices

Masters Candidates (7)
Elaine Equi, O Patriarchy
Gene Frumkin, Surreal Love Life
Maxine Kumin, Flying
Timothy Liu, Felix Culpa
Charles North, Sonnet
Hugh Seidman, I Do Not Know Myself
Dara Wier, Illumined with the Light of Fitfully Burning Censers

Overall, I would absolutely to highly recommend approx. 24% of the poems contained in this volume.

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Robert Creeley and I clearly do not share taste in poetry. LOL

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent series. While you may not enjoy every poem in the book (or agree that they are, in fact, the "best" for that year), you will most likely find poems from magazines that you don't often read.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quotes
"'a' and 'the' -- an instance is never quite the same as the thing itself." (xvii)

"Dreams themselves are footnotes. But not footnotes to life. Some other transaction they are so busy annotating all night long ." (23)

"Somewhere, sometimes I'll / think before I squeak, & somewhere sometimes / why I simply leap, as toward you, I just leap." Bill Kushner (73)

"What the lover seeks is the possibility of return, the strange heart beat- / in under every stone." Sarah Manguso (84)

"meaning wears many names yours for example"
"by some carelessness perhaps one's own"
"...indifference to the disappearance of time is everywhere"
Duncan McNaughton (90, 97, 99)

"I tell no one, how your hands ghost over my back..."
"...unhappy in its own way. Like apartments / at dusk."
Philip Metres (105, 106)

"...when after a family dinner in which the main conversation was having desires versus shutting them off you wander into the street eyes wet..."
"world news worsens these days / & you are not in my em- / brace"
"waiting to see you i write .... try to sleep by words float up"
Mong-Lan (109, 112, 117)

"in her thinning glance"
"fragments / of forgotten consequence"
Jennifer Moxley (199, 120)

"' I'm afraid I won't see it I think I might really be dying'
'I think you might be too'
'That's why you're the one I can talk to'" Alice Notley (126)

"...and since words / can be lies, his silence had, for me, / a truthfulness..."
"languagelessness"
"I feel that ignorant love gave me / a life."
Sharon Olds (129, 130)

"In a way I live on words" George Oppen (134)

"Anyway, you can see how a sentence / might tear the heart out of someone" Ira Sadoff (148)

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorites poems in this anthology were:

- Corpus Delicti (Peter Cooley)
- Great (Bill Kushner)
- Address to Winnie in Paris (Sarah Manguso)
- Ashberries: Letters (Philip Metres)
- Illumined with the Light of Fitfully Burning Censers (Dara Wier)

[Ryan Werner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poetry like this is why people think they don't like poetry. There are two very good poems in here, Sarah Manguso's prose-poem "Address to Winnie In Paris" and Jean Valentine's bittersweetly short "Do flies remember us." Some poems are fine, like a ripe banana or a slight breeze. Nothing to really give a fuck about, but pleasant.

Other than that, it's an assortment of poetry for the sake of language, the sort of cleverness that makes the reader feel inferior instead of competent, and the "I can justify doing nonsense because I'm so good" attitude of free jazz. This is what a handjob would look like if it had contributor notes.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This edition has Jenny Boully's "The Body" in it, which is possibly the best conceptualizer and executed poem I have ever read. Some other great highlights, too, like Anne Carson, and a fantastic experiment by Jackson Mac Low. Robert Creeley and I have very similar tastes in poetry, apparently. Recommended.

[Hyrum · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love good poetry but I hate bad poetry. This book was worse than my high school lit mag had better poetry. The was one decent poem in about two hundred pages of poetry. The majority of these poems came across as a dictionary explosion that landed on a blank page. Poetry is supposed to make you feel something but before they can do that they have to be understandable.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most notable for the poem 'O Patriarchy,' which I love.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took years for some reason but I am finally finished. Now on to 2003 which I hope is a better selection which means I will read it faster.