Best American Poetry of 2015 was the newest version of BAP available to our class, which made it very interesting to see poetry written within the last two years. Our three favorite poems, “Bodhisattva”, “Eating Walnuts”, and “In Memory of My Parents Who Are Not Dead Yet”, are all very influential and complex. Each has its…
“It seems so clear and easy. There’s the line. / You follow the instructions.” (Jennifer Keith)
Mr. Wagner’s stellar poem, On Being Asked to Discuss Poetic Theory, featured in the 2003 edition of BAP, philosophical-izes the idea of poetic theory, and what it means to poets and readers. Wagner never clearly answers the question the title poses, but he gives a clear, strong perspective on how, and just why he writes…
Throughout this semester of Contemporary Poetry, Morgan and I studied the 2011 Best American Poetry anthology. Out of all seventy-five poems, there were three that spoke to us: Family Math, Morning on the Island, and A Voice on the Answering Machine. We feel that these three poems are a good representation of the 2011 Best American Poetry book. One of our…
Throughout the course of history within the United states, great poetry has created both inspiration, and connections to the era it aims to depict. This holds true for the Best American Poetry series. As times have progressed, so have poems and their messages. As the new millennium started, new forms of poetry have become popular.…
Over the course of the first semester, Charlie Christensen and I studied the 2008 edition of Best American Poetry. For each of the seventy-five poems we gave “one sentence” evaluations and gave each one a score of 1-7. After reviewing and comparing our evaluations, we noticed that we gave a lot of poems the same score. We then chose our top…
Mr. Speiser and I were among those in attendance at the PEN organized “Writers Resist: #LouderTogether” event, held on the steps of the NYC Public Library on January 15, 2017. Here we are, momentarily turning our backs from both the poets and from our kids, who patiently took in the event. My oldest, Nikolai, wearing…
I cannot confess to being a perfect human. I most certainly cannot confess to being a perfect interpreter of poetry. It took me two tries to find a poem; the first, Mr. Janosco had to guide me away from, as it was published years prior to what I hoped to find. When I finally found…
Born in San Diego California in 1956, American poet Amy Gerstler graduated from Pitzer College and later received an M.F.A from Bennington College. She is now a professor in the MFA writing program at the University of California, Irvine. Gerstler has written many acclaimed poetry books, including Ghost Girl (2004), Crown of Weeds (1997), and Medicine (2000), which was…
The 2014 edition of Best American Poetry with guest editor, Terrance Hayes, is filled with poems that many, especially Mr. Hayes, would consider to be “great.” Because of this, the choice of finding the three greatest poems from this volume was an extremely difficult task. In the process, I decided to focus on the poems…