The Best American Poetry 2004

by Lyn Hejinian (Editor), David Lehman (Series Editor)

The Best American Poetry 2004 celebrates the vitality and richness of poetry in the United States and Canada today. In her provocative introduction, guest editor Lyn Hejinian, herself among the most acclaimed and innovative contemporary writers, expresses the need for this anthology. "Meaning in poetry," she writes, "is created by the linking together of poems to form the large, ancient, and ever new human undertaking of thinking together about the things that matter to us." Through her selections, Hejinian has created an essential nexus -- a meeting place for readers to encounter and commune with an extraordinary range of poets. She has brought together renowned figures such as John Ashbery, Anne Carson, and Billy Collins as well as many new and unheralded voices from whom we're going to be hearing a lot more in the future.With illuminating comments from the poets on their work, and series editor David Lehman's insightful foreword evaluating the current state of the art, "The Best American Poetry 2004" is an indispensable addition to a series that has established itself as the first word on what's new and noteworthy in the poetry of our times.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Lyn Hejinian (born May 17, 1941) is an American poet, essayist, translator and publisher. She is often associated with the Language poets and is well known for her landmark work My Life (Sun & Moon, 1987, original version Burning Deck, 1980), as well as her book of essays, The Language of Inquiry (University of California Press, 2000).

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[B. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Overall, I would give this collection a C- average (technically a 72.7% average) 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 worst edition of Best American Poetry that I have read so far. Besides the gems listed below, the book is not worthwhile for anybody who likes their poetry to be enjoyable and unique. At a recent conference for the Minnesota Council of Teachers of English (I know, a terribly clunky name for a profession that is supposed to teach people how to read good and do other stuff good too), Garrison Keillor spoke about poetry and how when he was young, there were many poets - inspired by Howl - who tried to write poems that channeled Ginsberg's edgy new style. Keillor went on to recite a poem that was willfully obscure with no real meaning. That parody of bad, inscrutable, unrewarding poetry could have easily been one of 30 poems in this collection.

I am by no means against obscure allusions or literary experimentation. My choices below reflect that. However, I am against much of the bland, bloated poetry that comprises the majority of this volume.

Masterpieces (6)
Oni Buchanan, The Walk
Billy Collins, The Centrifuge
Linh Dinh, 13
Harry Mathews, Lateral Disregard
Virgil Suarez, La Florida
James Tate, Bounden Duty

Masterful (7)
Jack Collom, 3-4-00
Rita Dove, All Souls
Jane Hirshfield, Poe: An Assay (I)
Carl Phillips, Pleasure
Bruce Smith, Song of the Ransom of the Dark
Arthur Sze, Acanthus
David Wagoner, Trying to Make Music

Masters Candidates (7)
John Ashbery, Wolf Ridge
Anne Carson, Gnosticism
T.J. Clark, Landscape with a Calm
Michael Davidson, Bad Modernism
John Koethe, To an Audience
K. Silem Mohammad, Mars Needs Terrorists
Edwin Torres, The Theorist Has No Samba!

Overall, I would absolutely to highly recommend approx. 26% of the poems contained in this volume.

[Ace Boggess · Rating 1 out of 5]

This remains my least favorite volume in the series to date (11/08/21). It shows how varied the annual guest editors' tastes can be. Here, Hejinian preferred the longer, more esoteric or experimental poems, possibly as a counterpoint to the time period's movement toward overly accessible poems in the era of Billy Collins (see Collins's 2006 volume). That's not to say there aren't some wonderful pieces in here. Danielle Pafunda's "RSVP" stands out as a personal favorite. But on whole, reading this volume (and I do go back read it ever couple of years), is like going to a book store looking for Alfred Kinsey's writings on sexuality and taking home his writings on gall wasps by mistake.

[Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a high school teacher, I use the Best American Poetry volumes as sources for contemporary poetry to share with students. Some yield more fruit than others, but generally I find four or five poems in each that I can use in class. From that perspective, this volume is a bust, having perhaps one poem I could see bringing to teens. This collection left me completely unmoved, and I think is a good example of why poetry has gone from a mass cultural devotion to an exclusive, mannered club.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hejinian favors longer poems and more experimental poems than I do. So much of this anthology just wasn't my style.

People like him have stepped into the same river twice.
- T.J. Clark, "Landscape with a Calm"

A girl I once met told me her name rhymed with orange.
- Charles Bernstein, "Sign Under Test"

Notable:
"La Florida" - Virgil Suarez
"Appeal to the Grammarians" - Paul Violi
"Compliance Engineering" - Ron Silliman

[Claire Casso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lyn Hejinian writes in her Introduction that the poems in this collection "make sense in a year that one can scarcely make sense of." Interesting reading this in 2016 (another year that seems to make no sense).

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read all of these Best American Poetry books. I have to admit to being a bit bogged down in the current issue, however. Each year's volume is edited by a different poet as guest editor, and the overall quality of the book depends a lot on that person. I have to say that my tastes in poetry are often and generally at odds with those of this year's editor, Lyn Hejinian. This makes for slow going. Her concentration on experimental uses of language is admirable, but overwhelming. There are other very admirable poems being published other than fragmented, experimental texts. As I am determined to finish this volume, and eager to get on to the 2005 one, I will soldier on.

Finished the book last night. It was an odd mix for me. Some of the poems I liked quite a lot, some I found challenging, and others I thought did not belong in a Best Of collection, not by a million years! Now I will crack the next one in the series, or maybe the next one I own!

Looking forward to Billy Collins' selection!

[Rodney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best of a bad series, with the Robert Pinskys and Billy Collinses of the world still hogging their customary air space, while Lyn Hejinian does her damndest to break in some new underground acts. The next years' editions were business as usual. But we had 2004.

[SaintAnn's]

Marc Jaffee is a contributor.

[Shana · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some good selections in here, but overall I guess I just differ with the editor on what poetry touches me.

[Michelle Hoogterp · Rating 2 out of 5]

It seemed that more of the poetry was abstract or experimental--not really the kind I like...