The Best American Poetry 2003

by Yusef Komunyakaa (Editor), David Lehman (Series Editor)

Poetry encourages us to have dialogue through the observed, the felt, and the imaginary, writes editor Yusef Komunyakaa in his thought-provoking introduction to The Best American Poetry 2003. As a black child of the American South and a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, Komunyakaa brings his singular vision to this outstanding volume. Included here is a diverse mix of senior masters, crowd-pleasing bards, rising stars, and the fresh voices of an emerging generation. With comments from the poets elucidating their work and series editor David Lehman's eloquent foreword assessing the state of the art, The Best American Poetry 2003 is a must-have for readers of contemporary poetry.
Jonathan Aaron • Beth Anderson • Nin Andrews • Wendell Berry • Frank Bidart • Diann Blakely • Bruce Bond • Catherine Bowman • Rosemary Catacalos • Joshua Clover • Billy Collins • Michael S. Collins • Carl Dennis • Susan Dickman • Rita Dove • Stephen Dunn • Stuart Dybek • Charles Fort • James Galvin • Amy Gerstler • Louise Glück • Michael Goldman • Ray Gonzalez • Linda Gregg • Mark Halliday • Michael S. Harper • Matthea Harvey • George Higgins • Edward Hirsch • Tony Hoagland • Richard Howard • Rodney Jones • Joy Katz • Brigit Pegeen Kelly • Galway Kinnell • Carolyn Kizer • Jennifer L. Knox • Kenneth Koch • John Koethe • Ted Kooser • Philip Levine • J. D. McClatchy • W. S. Merwin • Heather Moss • Stanley Moss • Paul Muldoon • Peggy Munson • Marilyn Nelson • Daniel Nester • Naomi Shihab Nye • Ishle Yi Park • Robert Pinsky • Kevin Prufer • Ed Roberson • Vijay Seshadri • Alan Shapiro • Myra Shapiro • Bruce Smith • Charlie Smith • Maura Stanton • Ruth Stone • James Tate • William Tremblay • Natasha Trethewey • David Wagoner • Ronald Wallace • Lewis Warsh • Susan Wheeler • Richard Wilbur • C. K. Williams • Terence Winch • David Wojahn Robert Wrigley • Anna Ziegler • Ahmos Zu-Bolton II

Genres: Poetry, American

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 26, 2003

About the author

Yusef Komunyakaa (born April 29, 1947) is an American poet who teaches at New York University and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Komunyakaa is a recipient of the 1994 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, for Neon Vernacular and the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He also received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Komunyakaa received the 2007 Louisiana Writer Award for his enduring contribution to the poetry world.

His subject matter ranges from the black general experience through rural Southern life before the Civil Rights time period and his experience as a soldier during the Vietnam War.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Komunyakaa's work a lot and so I was excited to read this compilation he edited, dated as it is (but hey, poetry is timeless, right?), and I was not disappointed. There were a few of the "whew! Too cryptic for my tastes" variety, and I couldn't bring myself to appreciate the ones that dealt with the 9/11 mass murders, but there were many, many others that I greatly enjoyed, though I think my favorite was Terence Winch's tongue-in-cheek, "My Work", which includes the line, "It's always dangerous to underestimate my work/I insult the intellectual dignity of the French."

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yusel Komunyakaa brings together a wide variety of perspectives in this best of collection. Smart man with good taste in poems. Nice heard out loud, thanks to my dear husband.

[B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I would give this collection a B average (technically an 85.6% 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 volume was a massive improvement from the 2004 edition I had read before this. Obviously, this is more than likely an indicator that Mr. Komunyakaa and I have similar tastes in poetry; it must walk the line between pleasurable reading and intellectual challenges with grace. This was evident from a telling moment in his introduction: "[...] any experimentation not in service of meaning is anti-poetry." While I am not entirely on board with this quote, I think that it expresses the general taste for modern poetry quite accurately. I am not the kind of pretentious reader who will accuse a poet who actually sells more than a dozen books like Billy Collins of being overrated or "taking up air" in a BAP collection, but I am also not the reader who does not want to be assigned extra reading by a poem that actually makes it worthwhile to dig into its obscure allusions. In any case, I recommend this volume, perhaps as a starter for readers who want to crack into the alternatingly frustrating/confounding and rewarding/beautiful world of the Best America Poetry series.

Masterpieces (8)
Wendell Berry, Some Further Words
Billy Collins, Litany
Stuart Dybek, Journal
Charles Fort, The Vagrant Hours
Michael Goldman, Report on Human Beings
Mark Halliday, The Opaque
Galway Kinnell, When the Towers Fell
Natasha Trethewey, After Your Death

Masterful (9)
Edward Hirsch, The Desire Manuscripts
Tony Hoagland, Summer Night
Joy Katz, Some Rain
Kenneth Koch, Proverb
Kevin Prufer, What the Paymaster Said
Maura Stanton, Translating
James Tate, The Restaurant Business
Ronald Wallace, In a Rut
Terence Winch, My Work

Masters Candidates (11)
Frank Bidart, Curse
James Galvin, Ponderosa
Amy Gerstler, An Offer Received in This Morning's Mail
Ray Gonzalez, Max Jacob's Shoes
Brigit Pegeen Kelly, The Dragon
Jennifer L. Knox, Love Blooms at Chimsbury After the War
Ishle Yi Park, Queen Min Bi
William Tremblay, The Lost Boy
Richard Wilbur, Man Running
David Wojahn, Scrabble with Matthews
Anna Ziegler, After the Opening, 1932

Overall, I would absolutely to highly recommend approx. 37% of the poems contained in this volume.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got this at a library book sale a few years back and finally got around to reading it. It's the first time I ever read a book in this series and have to say I was underwhelmed. I'm familiar enough with the poetry landscape to know that you should be able to find a better representation of American work in any given year. I'm guessing the selection is handicapped by factors such as only having one poem from any single poet, trying to find a diversity of voices and styles, etc. Plus it appears the anthology sometimes chose pieces by lions of the poetry landscape, despite the fact that it was nowhere near their best work. All that said, there are a number of nice poems in this book, and I also enjoyed reading the poets' comments about the pieces in the back. I discovered some poets I was unfamiliar with and want to check out.

[Marc Kohlman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich with many gratifying and engrossing selections. This edition certainly spoke many volumes of the year it was published.

[Cooch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A couple of excellent poems

There are a couple of poor poems, some good poems, some very good poems and a couple of excellent poems

[behsforensics]

Cutting is for When the Towers Fell
By Galway Kinnell

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of poetry.

167 pages - 75 poems addressing a wide variety of topics. I preferred David Lehman's Foreword to Yusef Komunyakaa's Introduction. The latter got a bit boring.

Anyway, a few poems worth noting here:
"Litany" - Billy Collins - a metaphor-driven piece
"Fox Trot Fridays" - Rita Dove
"Journal" - Stuart Dybek
"Some Rain" - Joy Katz - a lot of historical references
"In a Rut" - Ronald Wallace - a comedic piece that uses the names of various animals to describe human behavior
"After the Opening, 1932" - Anna Ziegler - about Edward Hopper

The poet-professor in corduroy cuffed pants
daydreamed of his evening flask of black whiskey
his nightwatch over the hourglass of metaphors.
- "The Vagrant Hours"- Charles Fort

but I was unprepared for the Siren lolling
on a bed in a dirty room above a tavern
where workers guzzled sour red wine
and played their cards late into the night
- "The Desire Manuscripts" - Edward Hirsch

I think the absence of color is like a life without love.
- "A History of Color" - Stanley Moss

[Wes Hazard · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one's going to like every single piece included in here, but with around 75 of Yusef Komunyakka's selections of the best verse from an entire calendar year it's hard to not give this 5 stars (as is the case with most editions of "The Best American…" -- no matter the genre or volume editor.) You might not be the hugest fan of "Thieves in the Temple", but that doesn't mean you wouldn't recommend "The Very Best of Prince" compilation album to everyone who likes music right? Same thing here.

Highlights for me included:
--Wendell Berry's "Some Further Words"
--Catherine Bowman's "1000 lines" (selections)
--Joshua Clover's "Aeon Flux: June"
--Billy Collins' "Litany"
--Michael Goldman's "Report on Human Beings"
--Galway Kinnell's "When The Towers Fell"

And a bunch more. Bottom line: Try it, you'll find a lot you'll like.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few good poems, here and there. On the whole, though, it feels like it was shaped more by the tastes of the editor than by an objective sense (if there is such a thing) of the "Best American Poetry."

[Eric Phetteplace · Rating 2 out of 5]

if this is the best a whole year of poetry can offer, we're in trouble. Even the ones by the big figures of American poetry (Hoagland, Pinsky, Gluck, Bidart) fall mostly flat.

[Julie Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has two of my favorite poems, "Queen Min Bee" by Ishle Yi Park and "Litany" by Billy Collins.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent. One of the high points of this series.