The Best American Poetry 2000

by Rita Dove (Narrator), David Lehman (Editor)

With an award-winning poet as guest editor, a perennially popular collection of poetry offers 2000's finest poems drawn from a variety of sources, including works by John Ashbery, Lucille Clifton, W. S. Merwin, and Susan Mitchell, and featuring each poet's commentary on their work.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies, American

285 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Rita Dove, former U.S. Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize winner, and musician, lives in Charlottesville, where she is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia.

Reviews

[Abeer Abdullah · Rating 3 out of 5]

"before all this,
ah safer and smoother and smaller was my heart"

I am grateful for poetry for being my companion in all the various stages of my life, in all the various moods and colors.

Poems in this series are usually hit or miss, but for the most part reading them is a very enriching experience.

[Florence Buchholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very few of these poems were memorable. An exception was "Man Listening to Disk" by Billy Collins. I quote: The music is loud yet so confidential/ I cannot help feeling even more/ like the center of the universe/ than usual as I walk along to a rapid/ little version of "The Way You Look Tonight". I often listen to music on headphones while walking my dog and that is exactly how I feel.

Here's another. This one is by Mark Halliday. It's entitled "Before" and it's about young love.

"prior to your denim cutoffs on the porch
prior to my notes and your notes
and before your name became a pulsing star,
before all this
ah safer and smoother and smaller was my heart"

I sometimes have trouble finding poetry that has meaning for me. Does anyone else have this problem?

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an excellent series. Here's just one example:

Samurai Song
by Robert Pinsky

When I had no roof I made
Audacity my roof. When I had
No supper my eyes dined.

When I had no eyes I listened.
When I had no ears I thought.
When I had no thought I waited.

When I had no father I made
Care my father. When I had
No mother I embraced order.

When I had no friend I made
Quiet my friend. When I had no
Enemy I opposed my body.

When I had no temple I made
My voice my temple. I have
No priest, my tongue is my choir.

When I have no means fortune
Is my means. When I have
Nothing, death will be my fortune.

Need is my tactic, detachment
Is my strategy. When I had
No lover I courted my sleep.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection, lots of hits. I got this off the "Take a book, leave a book" shelf in the English building.

Alpha Images - Karl Elder (a variation on an abecedarian)
Before - Mark Halliday
Samurai Song - Robert Pinsky
Permanence - Lawrence Raab
Asphodel - A. E. Stallings

Semiotics - Pamela Alexander ("What does it mean that your heart gets hiccups?")
Mango, Number 61 - Richard Blanco
The Year - Janet Bowdan ("I went to the dentist who showed me X-rays of your teeth.")
The Most Beautiful Word - Linh Dinh
Incest Taboo - Denise Duhamel
Walt, I Salute You! - Lynn Emanuel
Mrs. Hill - B. H. Fairchild
Seven Roses - Frank X. Gaspar
Consider the Demise of Everything - Marsha Janson
Ghosts - Patricia Spears Jones ("This perilous knowledge.")
The Hours of Darkness - W. S. Merwin
Lost Parrot - Susan Mitchell (if I had a nickel for every poem in this collection about parrots, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't that many, but it's weird that it happened twice, right?)
I Do Not - Michael Palmer
Paris - Paul Perry
History & Bikinis - Donald Platt (loved the final flash of imagery in the last 3 stanzas)
Postfeminism - Brenda Shaughnessy
The Dislocated Room - Richard Siken
There Is a Lake of Ice on the Moon - Pamela Sutton (on Midwestern knowledge)
The Infirmament - Dean Young (great title)

Definitely going to try to read through some of the suggestions for "Best American Poetry of the 20th Century."

This book is an excellent reminder to read collections/compilations in addition to single-author chapbooks.

[B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I would give this collection a low B average (technically an 83.81% 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 on my own tastes and will not necessarily reflect your average satisfaction rate.

Masterpieces (8)
Kim Addonizio, Virgin Spring
Carolyn Kizer, The Oration
Mary Oliver, Work
Robert Pinsky, Samurai Song
Donald Platt, History & Bikinis
A. E. Stallings, Asphodel
Susan Stewart, Wings
Adrienne Su, The English Canon

Masterful (8)
Pamela Alexander, Semiotics
Grace Butcher, Crow Is Walking
Rodney Jones, Plea for Forgiveness
Yusef Komunyakaa, The Goddess of Quotas Laments
W. S. Merwin, The Hours of Darkness
Brenda Shaughnessy, Postfeminism
Natasha Trethewey, Limen
Richard Wilbur, Fabrications

Masters Candidates (13)
A. R. Ammons, Shot Glass
Julianna Baggott, Mary Todd on Her Deathbed
Erin Belieu, Choose Your Garden
Lynn Emanuel, Walt. I Salute You!
Mark Halliday, Before
Olena Kalytiak Davis, Six Apologies, Lord
Thomas Lux, Henry Clay's Mouth
Carl Phillips, 'All art...'
Lawrence Raab, Permanence
Rebecca Seiferle, Welcome to Ithaca
Derek Walcott, Pissarro at Dusk
Susan Wood, Analysis of the Rose as Sentimental Despair
Dean Young, The Infirmament

Overall, I would absolutely to highly recommend approx. 42.6% of the poems contained in this volume.

[Patti K · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Goodreads program would not allow me to choose the 2020 edition.
When I tried the first time, it went to 2010; then it went to 2000. So I decided
to just go with it. The 2020 edition is guest edited by Paisley Rekdal, who
wrote the highly acclaimed Nightingale several years ago. As an example of
the fare. the first poem Saving the Children, by Julia Alvarez, is about the
contrary actions towards children in our world. One, the complicated rescue
of the coach and his cave explorers trapped in a deep cave while the waters
rise. The happy ending. While in the U.S. at the border, agents were separating
toddlers from their parents who were being deported. To this day, hundreds
of families have not yet been reunited. An enormous mistake without compassion.
Not all the poems are this sobering, but they all give an acute portrayal of some
of the many complications and joys of living. Recommend.

[Leah Angstman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This felt to me to be a rather lackluster collection of poems. Granted, the poetry scene has changed tremendously since 2000, and even more just in the last year or so, but I had this on my shelf and thought I'd give it a read, a few pieces per day. There was no poem that jumped out at me as amazing or necessary to collect, although it had some decent pieces. I think, perhaps, other years might have better poems in this series.

[Book2Dragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good poems in here, but mostly academic and inaccessible. It's saving grace is a poem by Mary Oliver, which is accessible and inspiring, as always are her poems.
So I would only recommend this to academics or those who like that kind of poetry.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent collection with some real highlights. Overall an OK year for the Best.

[Marc Kohlman · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best editions in the series. I really enjoyed reading pieces by some of my favorite poets, each poem a vivid extraordinary testament to what epitomizes the best in American Poetry.

[behsforensics]

Cutting is for The Dislocated Room
By Richard Siken

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rita Dove, the editor, of this millennial issue of Best American Poetry, clearly has a strong sense of historical responsibility. There were several poems in this volume that reflected on the journey through the 20th Century. There was also a greater representation of narrative poems that I see in most anthologies. Narrative poems are usually longer so this is not the anthology to pick up if you like shorter poems.

Overall the quality of the poetry was good. I have a habit of "editing" poetry on the page that I feel has gone amiss, making comments or striking out sections. I didn't do that at all in this volume. On the other hand, I only marked one poem in the table of contents that I especially liked: Robert Pinsky's "Samurai Song," which can be found on the Poetry Foundation's website. Usually I can find anywhere from 3-5 that stand out.

What makes this particular volume of Best American Poetry special is a millennial special section in the back which includes lists of past editors' top 15 poems of the 20th Century. What a request to make of someone! Most of them did respond and they make for some curious lists. The poets most often mentioned were Robert Frost and Elizabeth Bishop. The poems most often mentioned totaled four (and were each mentioned four times): Voyages and The Bridge by Hart Crane, and The Wasteland and Little Gidding by T.S. Eliot. These editors were more in agreement on who were important poets than on the poems they most favored.

This was definitely an edition of the Best American Poetry series that was worth reading for its perspectives on the 20th Century in general and 20th Century poetry specifically.

[Jason Vaughn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many powerful poems in this edition. My particular favorites:

Billy Collins: Man Listening to Disc
Jim Daniels: Between Periods
Charles Fort: We Did Not Fear the Father
Frank Glaser: And in the Afternoons I Botanized
Barbara Hamby: Ode to the Lost Luggage Warehouse at the Rome Airport
Paul Perry: Paris
Gabriel Spera: In a Field Outside the Town
A. E. Stallings: Asphodel
Susan Stewart: Wings
Dorothea Tanning: No Palms
Natasha Trethewey: Limen
Quincy Troupe: Song
Derek Walcott: Pissarro at Dusk
Richard Wilbur: Fabrications
Susan Wood: Analysis of the Rose as Sentimental Despair
John Yau: Borrowed Love Poems
Dean Young: The Infirmament

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection! At first, I was expecting a very pretentious collection, but this was not the case. Some of the poems ("The Most Beautiful Word" and "Incest Taboo" come to mind) were kind of pretentious, but they weren't terrible and had some good aspects. I really enjoyed "Between Periods" (the despair and wonder came through quite clearly) and "Ghosts", as well as "Man Listening to Disc", which I'd read before. A good variety in terms of form, subject, and style; a welcome addition to my collection at least.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's so easy to make spoilers of poetry books. So let me just list my favorite poems in this edition.
"Mary Todd On Her Deathbed"--loved it. "Crow is Walking" Great one. "Signs", but then Lucille Clifton is the queen of poetry in these past decades. Then oh my Billy Collins hit it right with "Man Listening To Disc" this could just as well been a woman listening to their favorite sounds. "Walt I Salute You", wonderful tribute, Then Ghosts was fabulous! There were others in this, but I really loved these.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's almost no American poet I like more than Rita Dove, who here proves to be just as strong an editor as she is an artist. The outstanding "Air for Mercury" by Brenda Hillman and Brenda Shaughnessy's "Postfeminism" define this collection for me; it is one of the best in the series.

[Avery Guess · Rating 4 out of 5]

brenda shaugnessy's "postfeminism" is awesome. i also really like natasha tretheway's "limen" and adrienne su's "the english canon." lucille clifton's "signs" is haunting. i particularly love the last lines of a. e. stallings "asphodel" - brilliant.

[Karen Douglass · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked her selections, although in any of these Best of series, once I've finished I feel vaguely lost. If I owned the book, I could do a better job of saying why I have this impression. But the book was a loner and I'm lost without it.

[Catherine]

poetry

[Melissa McClintock]

used as textbook for community college poetry writing class. has a great range of contemporary poets.

[Steven Withrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working my way through these from 1988 forward, and I've arrived at the 2000 edition. A mixed bag, but great poems by Wilbur, Collins, Clifton, and some others who are new to me.

[Troy Ketch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes I don't understand these poems. Sometimes I do. When I do, I like them a lot.