Selection of 75 poems published over the past year. A mixed set, but overall enjoyable.

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.

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 s...

A truly superb collection. Such an incredible range of wonderful poetry!The End of Poetry by Ada LimónEnough of osseous and chickadee and sunflowerand snowshoes, maple and seeds, samara and shoot,enough chiaroscuro, enough of thus and prophecyand the stoic farmer and faith and our father and tisof thee, enough of bosom and bud, skin and godnot forgetting and star bodies and frozen birds,enough of the will to go on and not go on or howa certain light does a certain thing, enoughof the kneeling an...

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 th...

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.

Outstanding collection of poetry culled from the year 2020, marked by the emergence of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests stemming from George Floyd's murder. Guest editor Tracy K. Smith has done a masterful job representing this tumultuous year with poems that address all its sorrow and surprises, all its regret and its heroism, and all the tenderness that keeps us human in the midst of calamity. So many of these poems are about love--but not just one-to-one romance, but love for

RITA DOVE Naji, 14. Philadelphia. A bench, a sofa, anyplace flat—just let me downsomewhere quiet, please,a strange lap, a patch of grass…What a fine cup of miseryI’ve brought you, Mama—crackedand hissing with bees.Is that your hand? Good, I didgood: 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 ourselvesand trauma is what they feelwhen they rage up flashingin their spit-shined carsshouting Who do you think you are?until everybody’s hoarse.I’m...

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 Eter...

THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY 2021By David Lehman, Guest edited by Tracy K. SmithA 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 th...

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 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 surp...

The Best American Poetry 2021by David LehmanPub 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 i...

"I think of all that I have inherited,all the bodies buried for me to be hereand stay here, how I was born with griefand gratitude in my bones" -- Red Wine Spills by L. Ash WilliamsI 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. Longmir...

This is my first real foray into poetry outside of a few individual poems here and there--mostly by William Cullen Bryant, the English Romantics, or Edgar Allen Poe. I am enamored and honestly want to read a lot more of it.

This edition is that rarest of volumes: one in which every poem is genuinely excellent. It has the right mix of styles, voices, and images, but also a good balance between challenge and accessibility. Guest editor Tracy K. Smith has chosen a nearly perfect batch of poems. If the book has a flaw, it's that there are no surprises. Possibly a result of the pandemic, the list of included literary journals is the shortest in memory at just under a page and a half. None of those are the occasional flu...

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 Mo...

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.

This is the 2021 edition of this annual publication. I'm tempted to say that if you read only one poetry book a year this is the one you should read, but I feel sorry with anyone so malnourished with only one poetry boo ka year. I think the poems in this series are chosen in a rahte arbitrary manner seeing as they come from only about 35 of the hundreds of poetry magazines published.But the selections in this series are consistently excellent, and no one can read all the poetry publications. For...

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 technicall...