The Best American Poetry 2020 (The Best American Poetry series)

I find a great deal of comfort in reading many of these poems, much of the time even happiness. However, some of the poems speak of world-weariness unimaginable to this veteran of five years of homelessness, a person who lives with Bipolar and also who survived leukemia. Then, when I flip to the back of the volume to read about the lives of the poets included, I see that many of them are much younger than I am, and most are university professors. Nothing wrong with that. Oddly, some of these poems seem to follow a dictum established by one cartoonist Lynda Barry, one of those "alternative cartoonists" who skewered poets and poetry a time or two: something about running away from the circus and living on picnic scraps at the beach until you die. While there is always room to be angry with one's country, one thing I do know despite my lack of an MFA is that I simply would not have survived had I dwelt on televised reality as if it's better or more important than what I see out my window. I got the impression that some of these poems were a little like the strange contradictory quality in seeing Palestinian teenagers brandishing DEATH TO AMERICA banners while wearing Adidas and Nike. Of course, I like shocking people with garish reactions to what I see on TV. Even if Olivia Benson is my spirit animal.Perhaps this is what happens when people in the scholastic world "go outlaw". Who knows? I used to like to shock the lightning out of people when I was 25. Now I see I was merely seeking to assert my importance to a world of strangers.Maybe, as I continue to mature throughout my practically purloined adulthood, I just "see stuff" that the experts don't. This volume isn't nearly as shock-worthy as last year's version. I get the impression with all this shock and recoil into violence that many exceptionally well-versed individuals feel alienated, empty, at-odds and in dire need of expressing that.Then there are the poems devoted to quotidian beauty. That's why I read poetry. It's why I write it too.

Book is in perfect condition and well boxed. A+ seller!

Paisley Rekdal (Utah's current Poet Laureate) puts together a very solid collection of poems for this entry into the BAP series. 2020 is a year to remember and the wide-ranging selections not only show diversity among the poets but diversity in the contemporary aesthetic of poetry itself. I was pleased to see many familiar names and some poets I have admired for a long time included in the collection, but I was even more pleased to see many new poets to discover, which is what I think this series is supposed to excel at, though has not always done so. I can also say this is the first time I have taken so much delight in the editor's introduction. Often perfunctory, Rekdal takes on her entry with an energy and sense of purpose that I have not seen before. This purchase was certainly worth my money.

I'm a poet, short story writer and soon-to-be novelist and I set really highwriting standards for myself. I'm also putting together an online coursecalled 30 POEMS in 30 DAYS - Daily Prompts to Keep You Going.I figured I'd better read the latest BEST OF POETRY EDITIONto get myself into the groove of who's writing what.I love poetry - reading it and writing it and I'd love toenlighten regular folks about poetry's wonder and magic as itweaves its way into the relevance of their own everyday lives.This review can be my beginning.The selected poems were a vibrant surprise. Without giving too much away,these mini-mind-movies take us along with them on adventures as simpleas in Amy Lemmon's "I take your T-Shirt to bed again"where a lover missing her man so much,takes his T-shirt to bed with her, smelling the sweetness of his pores...our YESand YES and YES opening and opening. In Dorianne Laux's "Song" we feel privy toa sweet marital moment of reflection with the chilled wind blowing through the dark hours -the yin and yang of any real marriage. In Victoria Kelly's "When The Men Go Off To War",the poet imagines 200 days in the life where her beloved exists without her...And then, a few days before the planes fly in/we return. We roll out the sidewalks andmake the beds/tether the trees to the yard./On the airfield, everything is as it should be-/our matte red lipstick, the babies blanketed inside strollers...

This collection is heavily weighted toward "the academy": most poems are written by creative writing teachers, professors, etc. So the poems are often pretentious (some even name-drop) and there are precious references to other works of literature. I have a post-graduate degree in literature and have read poetry all my life, so yes, I recognize the worst of the university culture in these poems.That being said, there are a smattering of honest, rugged poems from writers of different backgrounds and origins which are really worth reading.Also shameful is that fact that the compiler has basically done nothing to curate this collection. It would have made sense to group poems by theme, or style, or subject. But no: these poems are arranged alphabetically by poet's last names. Uninspired and lazy approach. Really, an insult, and the result is not worthy of the title Best American Poetry.(Thank God this is not a collection of the BEST American poetry; if it were the best, the USA might as well quit trying!)