| Title | : | The Best American Poetry 2021 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1982106638 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781982106638 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 240 |
| Publication | : | First published September 28, 2021 |
Since 1988, The Best American Poetry series has been “one of the mainstays of the poetry publication world” (Academy of American Poets). Each volume presents a choice of the year’s most memorable poems, with comments from the poets themselves lending insight into their work. The guest editor of The Best American Poetry 2021 is Tracy K. Smith, the former United States Poet Laureate, whose own poems are, Toi Derricotte’s words, “beautiful and serene” in their surfaces with an underlying “sense of an unknown vastness.” In The Best American Poetry 2021, Smith has selected a distinguished array of works both vast and beautiful by such important voices as Henri Cole, Billy Collins, Louise Erdrich, Nobel laureate Louise Glück, Terrance Hayes, and Kevin Young.
The Best American Poetry 2021 Reviews
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"I think of all that I have inherited,
all the bodies buried for me to be here
and stay here, how I was born with grief
and gratitude in my bones"
-- Red Wine Spills by L. Ash Williams
I always enjoy reading such collections because I am introduced to so many wonderful poets but struggle to give these collections a rating because of course I won't enjoy each poem. Here is the list of my favorites (other than the ones I quoted):
- Meditations on a Photograph of Historic Rail Women by Warren C. Longmire
- Stone Love by Louise Erdrich
- Divination by Lauren K. Alleyne
- A Smiling Understanding by Stanley Moss
- love poem that ends at popeyes by Destiny O. Birdsong
- women's voting rights at one hundred (but who's counting?) by Evie Shockley”What more could I want now beyond
everything I've ever had, all over again,
and the strength to withstand the heavens?”
-- After Tu Fu by Christopher Buckley
- The Stuff of Astounding: A Golden Shovel for Juneteenth by Patricia Smith
- Ode to the Boy Who Jumped Me by Monica Sok
- Chinese Restaurant Syndrome by Adrienne Su
- Copernicus by Paul Tran
- Blood by Margaret Ross
- Double Major by Major Jackson
"Is memory the best eternity we can make? The only?"
-- The School of Eternities by Chen Chen -
Predominantly political poetry -- which given living/writing/reading during a global pandemic year and with Black Lives Matter, immigration, and enduring Trumpist/fascist domestic terrorism largely defining the past year makes total sense. But the thing about political poetry is that I find it is very easy to respond enthusiastically to the politics of the poem but find the poetic quality more often than not wanting. The most memorable poems I read were both formal: a triolet by Kamilah Aisha Moon and a pantoum by John Yau that is a touching elegy to the New York Poet Paul Violi.
And there were four love poems I found very moving: Destiny O. Birdson's "love poem that ends at popeyes;" Chen Chen's "The School of Eternities;" Alex Dimitrov's list poem "Love;" and (my favorite in the book) a very touching poem to the poet's father facing dementia, Kathy Fagan's "Conqueror." -
Better than many recent books in this series. American poetry has been particularly amazing in the last 10 years and sadly few of this series’ volumes during the last decade have really reflected what’s going on in contemporary poetry. This year’s is a vast improvement.
As usual, there are a few I didn’t connect with and one or two poems I found outright bad, but most of the book was filled with thought provoking, moving work. Poems by Chen Chen, Natalie Diaz, Rita Dove, and Patricia Smith are standouts. Oh, and Monica Youn’s as well. -
RITA DOVE
Naji, 14. Philadelphia.
A bench, a sofa, anyplace flat—
just let me down
somewhere quiet, please,
a strange lap, a patch of grass…
What a fine cup of misery
I’ve brought you, Mama—cracked
and hissing with bees.
Is that your hand? Good, I did
good: I swear I didn’t yank or glare.
If I rest my cheek on the curb, let it drain…
They say we bring it on ourselves
and trauma is what they feel
when they rage up flashing
in their spit-shined cars
shouting Who do you think you are?
until everybody’s hoarse.
I’m better now. Pounding’s nearly stopped.
Next time I promise I’ll watch my step.
I’ll disappear before they can’t
unsee me: better gone
than one more drop in a sea of red. -
Every single piece in this collection is a work of art. 2021 is the sweet spot of pandemic poetry - not as dark as the early desperation of 2020 - and not quite urgent to be read. But beautiful. Every line will resonate with someone. New poets, old poets, & everyone in between will enjoy Tracy K. Smith’s curation of what can only be described as, “The Best American Poetry” of 2021.
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There is no doubt in my mind that I might enjoy reading Tracy Smith's poetry if I acquired any of her volumes. But I now am convinced quite strongly, from her introduction to this volume, that she is a pathetic ideologue that has no integrity whatsoever nor any objectivity in her choice of the Best American Poetry. As a poet, does she not understand quality? As a poet, are the poor poems she chose, those simplistic virtue-signaling blatherings amount to readable material, as opposed to poetry that reaches to the soul?
I cannot trust such persons who choose everything based on furthering the cause of social justice. About a third of the poems here, (i.e., ~25 poems) are about systemic racism as defined by poets who wax fancy with their diction, but would be frantic deer-in-front-of-the-headlights when asked to properly defined terms. As a libertarian, I would not find any problem of recommending GB Shaw, or Arthur Miller to my friends, even if such friends had socialistic leanings. Good art is good art. I don't care what anyone says about them. If a Randian said that these works of art do not purport to have those high aesthetic values because they do not sport real moral values, I would beg to differ with them on the basis that such art can be widely interpreted and understood to mean many things, some of which are our own ideals, but not all works of art can move the soul. In this volume, you will find nothing that moves the soul.
It is often joked about that a joke that is smart but not really funny gets us to nod or to produce a 'hmf' sound from our noses. The best poems here do that only superficially, but there is no good poem in this volume. And the best poems here are the least rotten apples in the garbage heap. Is American poetry doomed to mediocrity? Is Tracy Smith so horrible at finding or choosing the poems? Is Lehmen a coward, or is he forced to choose these ideologues? I want to contact him to ask him why he talks about political correctness ruining poetry and then choosing such bad editors who don't know how to choose a good poem. It's so irritating.
I might read 2020's edition and then stop reading this series for good. That is only to finish reading '15, '16, '17, '18, '19, ..., '21. Otherwise, '16 was the ONLY good volume of poetry, the rest being mediocre beyond comparison. -
THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY 2021
By David Lehman, Guest edited by Tracy K. Smith
A fair warning—these poems don’t pull any punches. Tracy K. Smith, guest editor of THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY 2021 ( Scribner, September 2021), has assembled poems that not only prove their qualifications in re: “the best”, as the chicago tribune has already pointed out, but also capture—elegantly in some places, brutally in others, expertly in all—the promised encapsulation of 2021: an emotional endurance test, born of the pressure-cooker that was 2020. THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY 2021 is a blow-you-away collection; masterfully curated.
The anthology is full of emotionally resonant and structurally complex poetry. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, it is rich with vital commentary on the issues that trouble our time: assault and gendered violence, policing and the inherent violence therein, the failures of late-stage capitalism, systemic racism and xenophobia, anti-semitism, axes of privilege, climate change, and of course COVID-19. Susan Briante’s “Further Exercises”, for example, begins with “Write a 12-line rhythmically charged poem in which you slant rhyme (at least twice) the name of the last official indicted from the Trump administration.” Things do not lighten from there. It is a reminder, as David Lehman’s foreword discusses in some detail, that poetry is personal and the personal (especially in art) is inherently political.
These poems are educational—while some enlighten, placing their speakers in the realities of current events and culture, others demonstrate the truths of the world through lived experience, through attentive and intensely personal storytelling. The collection of poems that Smith has assembled are both incisive and timeless. They are a vivid capturing of the particular concerns of this hellish cluster of years, but through that exploration they are able to distill emotions and experiences that are fundamental to being human: the fullness of compassion, true peace, righteous fury, frustration and confusion, fear, genuine connection, the pure shock that is joy, and so much more.
THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY 2021 publishes 9/28/2021 and is now available for pre-order. -
I've never read one of these anthologies before, but I loved Tracy K. Smith's work as editor of this year's edition. Full of poems that captivated me and challenged me. I particularly enjoyed reading about the poets and the short notes regarding their poems. This was a gift I so enjoyed to read.
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this was a beautiful collection! i loved the variety of culture and experience pulled into this collection, and the biting nature of each of these poems. there were several pieces that i highlighted and that i'm excited to return to one day.
thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with an ARC through NetGalley! -
I enjoyed this anthology. I read many poems that I wouldn't have otherwise, and I respect the editor and was curious what she thought was memorable from this year. Some things I loved, some I didn't, and that's the nature of anthologies.
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It’s such a treat every year to encounter so many good poets, those I’ve admired for ages—Louise Gluck, Kevin Young—and those whom I’ve come to know in the past few years: Chen Chen, Victoria Chang, Alex Dimitrov. And then there are those I encounter for the first time—Adam Davis, for instance, whose “Interstate Highway System” in this collection is a stunning, haunted poem.
Other favorites:
Ada Limon’s “The End of Poetry” 💯.
Billy Collins, “On the Death of Friends”
Chen Chen, “The School of Eternities”
Jericho Brown, “Work”
Destiny Birdsong, “love poem that ends at popeyes”
Paul Tran, “Copernicus”
John Yau, “Overnight”
Monica Youn, “Caution” -
Favorites:
—AMA Codjoe, “After the Apocalypse”
—Camille T. Dungy, “This’ll hurt me more”
—Nikky Finney, “I Feel Good”
—Rachel Eliza Griffiths, “Hunger”
—Terrance Hayes, “George Floyd”
—Major Jackson, “Double Major”
—Amaud Jamaul Johnson, “So Much for America“
—Patricia Smith, “The Stuff of Astounding”
—L. Ash Williams, “Red Wine Spills” -
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This one was hard to rate, but I think 3 stars is pretty fair. For those who might not know, the Best American Poetry collection has been published every year since 1988, so I was super excited to read this year's anthology.
There were poems in this collection that I absolutely LOVED, such as "Love" by Alexander Dimitrov. I tend to relate best to poetry that drills down really specifically into a moment or feeling, so it's not surprising that the approximately 50% of poems in this anthology that didn't speak of political or social issues were my favorite.
That said, about 50% of the poems included spoke to social and political issues, so I'd be doing a disservice to the review if I just ignored them. Without giving my personal opinions -because they don't matter- a lot of these style poems had a very similar voice and view. I would've loved to see some opposing voices on these issues, as I WANT to read poetry that I disagree with, poetry that challenges me for better or worse. That said, this is personal preference so I didn't take a star off for that. I DID take a star off simply because the topics felt kind of repetitive. -
A truly superb collection. Such an incredible range of wonderful poetry!
The End of Poetry by Ada Limón
Enough of osseous and chickadee and sunflower
and snowshoes, maple and seeds, samara and shoot,
enough chiaroscuro, enough of thus and prophecy
and the stoic farmer and faith and our father and tis
of thee, enough of bosom and bud, skin and god
not forgetting and star bodies and frozen birds,
enough of the will to go on and not go on or how
a certain light does a certain thing, enough
of the kneeling and the rising and the looking
inward and the looking up, enough of the gun,
the drama, and the acquaintance’s suicide, the long-lost
letter on the dresser, enough of the longing and
the ego and the obliteration of ego, enough
of the mother and the child and the father and the child
and enough of the pointing to the world, weary
and desperate, enough of the brutal and the border,
enough of can you see me, can you hear me, enough
I am human, enough I am alone and I am desperate,
enough of the animal saving me, enough of the high
water, enough sorrow, enough of the air and its ease,
I am asking you to touch me. -
The Best American Poetry 2021
by David Lehman
Pub Date 01 Dec 2021
Scribner
Poetry
I am reviewing a copy of The Best American Poetry 2021 through Scribner and NetGalley:
The Best American Poetry collection has been “one of the mainstays of the poetry publication world” (Academy of American Poets) since 1988. Every volume presents a choice of the year’s most memorable poems, with comments from the poets themselves lending insight into their work. The guest editor of The Best American Poetry 2021 is Tracy K. Smith, the former United States Poet Laureate, whose own poems are, Toi Derricotte’s words, “beautiful and serene” in their surfaces with an underlying “sense of an unknown vastness.”
Smith has selected a distinguished array of works both vast and beautiful by such important voices as Henri Cole, Billy Collins, Louise Erdrich, Nobel laureate Louise Glück, Terrance Hayes, and Kevin Young for The Best American Poetry 2021.
I give The Best American Poetry 2021 five out of five stars!
Happy Reading! -
This was the best collection of American poetry I've read in some time, and I think that is due to editor and (fabulous) poet Tracy K. Smith. Skip series editor David Lehman's introduction, rife with such vague pronouncements as, "For poets who teach or work at universities, the pandemic will have profound consequences." Do tell!
I dog-eared 15 poems in this volume, many with arch titles like Ada Limon's "The End of Poetry" and Major Jackson's "Double Major." I do wish there were more technically accomplished work; for example, black-out poetry is more middle-school innovation than avant-garde. Notably, Terrance Hayes' brilliant "George Floyd" shows how line breaks and classical tropes can be deployed to devastating effect, concluding: "Emmett/ till the break of day Emmett till/ the river runs dry your face/ the music of the spheres/ Emmett till the end of time". Though overtly political and topical poetry dominates this volume, that is not a flaw. As June Jordan wrote, "Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth." -
A collection that could have only been assembled for 2021. The poems I really liked were:
Some Call It God / Jabari Asim
Benediction/ Joshua Bennett
After Tu Fu / Christopher Buckley
Marfa, Texas / Victoria Chang
The School of Eternities / Chen Chen
Before the Riot / Kwame Dawes
Naji, 14. Philadelphia. / Rita Dove
Hunger / Rachel Eliza Griffeths
When my Sorrow was Born / Emily Lee Luan
Playing Dead / Sally Wen Mao
a brief meditation of breath / Yesenia Montilla
Irony / Kamilah Aisha Moon
Elegy with Table Saw and Cobwebs / Patrick Phillips
Blood / Margaret Ross
brown and black people on shark tank / Angbeen Saleem
The stuff of astounding: a golden shovel for Juneteenth / Patricia Smith
Copernicus / Paul Tran -
Ooooooooh. So many good ones. I love that this collection introduces me to so many good and great poets and poems and reminds me why I love the ones I do.
My top hits from this collection. Capitalization determined by my smart phone.
Lauren k alleyne
Joshua bennett
Destiny o birdsong
Susan’s Briante
Victoria Chang
Chen Chen
Alex dimitrov
Camille t dungy
Nikky finney
Nancy miller Gomez
Jorie graham
Didi Jackson
Amaud jamaul Johnson
Ada limon
Warren c longmire
Nicole sealey
Darius Simpson
Paul tran
Shelley Wong
Monica youn -
Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Now available.
Every once in a while, there will be a collection of poems that leaves you breathless, too stunned to speak. This is one of those collections. Each poem is a bullet shot straight to the heart, a ghost that lingers behind you, a spell cast over your mind. Bewitching and beguiling, the collection sings together if only to make you realize that there is, perhaps, some beauty in this cruel world, some measure of love and community admist structural inequities of the day. -
Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Now available.
Every once in a while, there will be a collection of poems that leaves you breathless, too stunned to speak. This is one of those collections. Each poem is a bullet shot straight to the heart, a ghost that lingers behind you, a spell cast over your mind. Bewitching and beguiling, the collection sings together if only to make you realize that there is, perhaps, some beauty in this cruel world, some measure of love and community admist structural inequities of the day. -
I can't say that any of the poems included in this collection are bad or unworthy, but I do wish there were more from smaller outlets and independent presses. There could be more representation, too, of historically marginalized writers. But the poems here are almost all excellent, if somewhat conservative in scope and approach. It'll be fine for classes and reading groups, but I don't feel like it really represents the best American poetry right now.
