The New Young American Poets

Poetry today holds mainstream attention as never before. From community workshops to reading groups, from coffee house poetry slams to small press lit mags, from universities to web 'zines, the world of poetry has become part of our everyday lives. Demonstrating the range and vitality of the new generation of American writers,The New Young American Poetsfeatures the work of forty poets born since 1960.

Born in 1969, Kevin Prufer grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and is now an associate professor in the creative writing program at Central Missouri State University. His first collection of poetry, Strange Wood, won the Winthrop Poetry Series and was published in 1998. He coedits Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing.

A Foreword Looking Backwards

xi

Richard Howard

Introduction

xiii

I Would Steal Horses

1

(3)

Sherman Alexie

The Exaggeration of Despair

1

(1)

Evolution

2

(1)

Theology

3

(1)

You Don't Know What Happened When You Froze

4

(6)

Talvikki Ansel

My Shining Archipelago

5

(2)

For Want

7

(1)

Origin Charm Against Uncertain Injuries

8

(2)

Riffing

10

(5)

Rick Barot

Three Amoretti

11

(1)

Portishead Suite

12

(3)

That's Not in My Job Description

15

(6)

Paul Beatty

Nocturne: My Sister Life

21

(6)

Erin Belieu

A Sleeping Man Must Be Awakened to Be Killed

23

(1)

Legend of the Albino Farm

24

(2)

Rondeau at the Train Stop

26

(1)

What the Body Told

27

(5)

Rafael Campo

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

27

(2)

Asylum

29

(1)

My Childhood in Another Part of the World

29

(1)

Towards Curing AIDS

30

(2)

``When the grain is golden and the wind is chilly, then it is the time to harvest''

32

(6)

Nick Carbo

Little Brown Brother

35

(1)

The Filipino Politician

36

(1)

Votive Candles

37

(1)

The map room

38

(3)

Joshua Clover

El periferico, or sleep

38

(1)

``An archive of confessions, a genealogy of confessions''

39

(1)

``Alas, that is the name of our town; I have been concealing it all this time''

40

(1)

Mary Warren's Sampler

41

(5)

Nicole Cooley

Publick Fast on Account of the Afflicted: March 31, 1692

42

(1)

The Mother: Dorcas Good

43

(2)

``Reasons to be Considered for. . . the Intended Plantation in New England,'' 1629

45

(1)

John Winthrop

Sex with a Famous Poet

46

(6)

Denise Duhamel

Ego

47

(1)

I'm Dealing with My Pain

48

(1)

How Much Is This Poem Going to Cost Me?

49

(3)

Atomic Bride

52

(8)

Thomas Sayers Ellis

Star Child

55

(1)

Sir Nose D'VoidofFunk

56

(2)

Practice

58

(2)

Democracy

60

(6)

Suzanne Gardinier

Admirals (Columbus)

60

(1)

The Ghost of Santo Domingo

61

(1)

Two Girls

62

(2)

Letter to My Mother

64

(2)

My Androgynous Years

66

(6)

James Harms

The Joy Addict

67

(1)

Los Angeles, the Angels

68

(1)

Soon

69

(3)

Numbers

72

(11)

Allison Joseph

Pure Pop

74

(2)

My Father's Heroes

76

(2)

When Our Women Go Crazy

78

(1)

Julia Kasdorf

Grossdaadi's Funeral

78

(1)

Mennonites

79

(1)

Green Market, New York

80

(1)

Eve's Striptease

81

(2)

Women Must Put Off Their Rich Apparel

83

(5)

Joy Katz

Concerning the Islands Newly Discovered

84

(1)

Taxonomy

85

(1)

The Imperfect Is Our Paradise

86

(1)

Falling

86

(2)

Ariel Singing

88

(5)

Timothy Liu

Vox Angelica

88

(2)

Kindertotenlieder

90

(1)

Poem

91

(1)

Sunday

92

(1)

Heartsong

93

(6)

Khaled Mattawa

Watermelon Tales

94

(3)

Before

97

(2)

Disasterology

99

(6)

Jeffrey McDaniel

D

100

(2)

Following Her to Sleep

102

(1)

Logic in the House of Sawed-Off Telescopes

103

(2)

The First Trimester

105

(7)

Campbell McGrath

Delphos, Ohio

107

(2)

Spring Comes to Chicago

109

(2)

Wheatfield Under Clouded Sky

111

(1)

My Least Skirtable Deficiency

112

(5)

HeidiLynn Nilsson

On Inheriting Departure

113

(1)

``We Are Easily Reduced''

114

(1)

How Came What Came Alas

115

(2)

The Turn of Privacy

117

(7)

Rick Noguchi

The Breath He Holds

118

(1)

I, the Neighbor Mr. Uskovich, Watch Every Morning Kenji Takezo Hold His Breath

119

(2)

The Really Long Ride

121

(1)

From Rooftops, Kenji Takezo Throws Himself

121

(1)

Kenji Takezo Becomes Water

122

(2)

Love Poem

124

(5)

Barbara J. Orton

Bacchanal

126

(1)

Beekeeper

126

(2)

The Sea Monkeys

128

(1)

Days like Prose

129

(8)

Alan Michael Parker

The Vandals

130

(1)

Another Poem about the Vandals

131

(1)

Cruelty, the Vandals Say

132

(2)

The God of Pepper

134

(1)

No Fool, the God of Salt

135

(2)

[nicholas the ridiculous: you will always be 27 and impossible. no more expectations]

137

(6)

D. A. Powell

[the thicknesses of victor decreased: blanket-> sheet->floss. until no material would do]

138

(1)

[sleek mechanical dart: the syringe noses into the blue vein marking the target of me]

139

(1)

[who won't praise green. each minute to caress each minute blade of spring. green slice us open]

140

(1)

[sonnet]

141

(1)

[darling can you kill me: with your mickeymouse pillows]

142

(1)

Testimonial

143

(3)

Claudia Rankine

Brooklyn Bridge

146

(3)

Matthew Rohrer

Precision German Craftsmanship

146

(1)

Gliding Toward the Lamps

147

(1)

The Hunger of the Lemur

147

(2)

Why I Forgive My Younger Self Her Transgressions

149

(5)

Ruth L. Schwartz

Falling in Love after Forty

150

(1)

Midnight Supper

150

(2)

AIDS Education, Seventh Grade

152

(2)

Crepuscule

154

(6)

Angela Shaw

Rear Window

155

(1)

April

156

(1)

Bird Nests

156

(1)

Small Pleasures

157

(3)

The Difficult Music

160

(4)

Reginald Shepherd

Another Version of an Ocean

161

(1)

Motive

162

(1)

The Gods at Three A. M.

162

(2)

Holy Ghost

164

(4)

Larissa Szporluk

Triage

165

(1)

Axiom of Maria

166

(1)

Occupant of the House

167

(1)

Mardi Gras Premortem

168

(5)

Ann Townsend

First Death

168

(1)

The Bicycle Racers

169

(1)

Purple Loosestrife

170

(1)

Rouge

171

(2)

Naola Beauty Academy, New Orleans, Louisiana 1943

173

(4)

Natasha Trethewey

Bellocq's Ophelia

174

(1)

Photograph of a Bawd Drinking Raleigh Rye

175

(1)

Cameo

176

(1)

Daffodils

177

(5)

Karen Volkman

Shipwreck Poem

178

(1)

Untitled [``Shrewd star, who crudes our naming. . . '']

179

(1)

Untitled [``I won't go in today. . . '']

180

(1)

Untitled [``We did things more dulcet. . . '']

180

(2)

Urban Gallery

182

(6)

Rachel Wetzsteon

Drinks in the Town Square

183

(1)

A Rival

184

(1)

The Late Show

185

(1)

Poem for a New Year

186

(2)

The Dark Days

188

(6)

Greg Williamson

Bodies of Water

192

(1)

Appalachian Trees Encircled by Police Tape

192

(1)

Belvedere Marittimo

193

(1)

Elegy

194

(4)

Max Winter

Space Parable

194

(1)

Long Distance

195

(1)

Dux Bellorum

196

(2)

Michael Masse

198

(6)

Sam Witt

Waterfowl Descending

199

(2)

Americana

201

(1)

Everlasting Quail

202

(2)

The Bruise of This

204

(5)

Mark Wunderlich

From a Vacant House

205

(1)

Take Good Care of Yourself

205

(2)

The Anchorage

207

(2)

Quivira City Limits

209

(8)

Kevin Young

Clyde Peeling's Reptiland in Allenwood, Pennsylvania

210

(2)

Letters from the North Star

212

(1)

Campbell's Black Bean Soup

213

(1)

Langston Hughes

214

(3)

Acknowledgments

217

(6)

Contributors

223

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The New Young American Poets

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials