The Best American Poetry 2022 (The Best American Poetry series)

In the late 1960s I came across an anthology of new American poetry on the shelves of my high school library. I had been systemically reading all of the poetry books on the shelf, everything from Catullus to a book of poetry for young adults. I discovered many poets in that volume, so I was excited to get The Best American Poetry 2022, knowing I would discover poets new to me.I did find some familiar poets, including Gerald Stern, who so recently passed, and who I heard read from Lucky Life when a student at Temple University, whose Lest I Forget Thee is included. And poets whose recent books I was lucky to have received from the publisher, including Sharon Olds whose Best Friend Ballad was a favorite in her collection Balladz, and Charles Simic’s In the Lockdown from No Land in Sight.Many of the poems reflect contemporary life: Covid isolation and fears, racism, the failure of the American Dream, loss, the things which sustain us.I will note some of my favorites in this volume upon first reading.Goblin by Matthew Dickman tells of a grandfather playacting a goblin to scares his child. “Half the time I had no idea what I was doing,” he writes about child raising, before continuing, “but I think we do know.” I was transported to my mother’s game of holding me over the side of the bed, saying the mice would eat my toes, and pulling me back to her in a hug. I was an adult before I realized it was why I was afraid to cross a dark room at night, worried that something would eat my toes!Lisa Muradyan reflects a mother’s concern during the pandemic in Quoting the Bible: “I place a green dinosaur/mask on his face,/don’t be afraid, I spray/ his hands with disinfectant/ don’t be afraid/I hold him close.”“I would love to live/In a country that lets me grow old,” Jericho Brown writes in Inaugural.Biographies of each poet includes a comment on the poem included, which I often found as moving as the poem. “I have been thinking more and more about what it means to reproduce ourselves–through art, through offspring–what it means to live, love, age, die, leave a legacy when our world is facing potential extinction,” Cathy Linh Che comments on Marriage. It is something I often think about, age 70 and without a grandchild, our son the last to carry on his family name, making my quilts and writing my reviews.My Father’s Mustache arose when Ada Limon’s father sent her a photograph of himself from the 1970s when he was young and in his prime; it had been a year since they had seen each other. His portrait of him is so vivid, sporting the “lush mustache” she “adored.” “As a child I once cried when he shaved it. Even then/I was too attached to this life.” I recalled my husband from that time with his dark hair and thick mustache and tan designer suit.Elegy on Fire by D. A. Powell grew out his frustration with Fourth of July fireworks that are potential fire threats, a fear I share as we live a block away from a a yearly big fireworks display; the poem morphed into something deeper. “I want to wake up the neighbors/the way they once woke me the/building’s on fire get out get out/I want to have already rebuilt after/patriotism had hurled its sparklers/in its trash and scorched us all”.Erika A. Sanchez’s Departure is chilling, a poem that helped her work through trauma.As things kept getting worse in 2020, William Waltz wrote In a dark time, the eye begins to see. “When we looked/past the flames/all was a curtain/of mystery and ignorance,/so we poked the pit/with pointed sticks.”The seventy-five poems are chosen from online and print magazines. I loved the diversity and the timely subjects and themes.I received an ARC from the publisher. My review is fair and unbiased.

An excellent anthology full of revelatory, memorable poems. I don't love all the poems, and you probably won't either, but I find the vast majority of these poems full of surprising insights and pleasures, worth reading and rereading.

Since this is an anthology, the poems will variously please or displease different tastes, but for me there were several truly wonderful poems (for both content and craft): by Matthew Dickman, Vievee Francis, Laura Kolbe, and Dana Levin. Check them out!

I have bought this annual collection for the last 12 years. There are always hits and misses -for what one might consider 'great' or best - and a lot more misses in this one for my taste. Poetry is always a matter of preference, but very few to engage me in this edition. Hope it goes better for others.A winter talePoems rising to be the bestA slippery slope

I buy this every year for myself because I like reading the latest poetry. I did not find this year's selections as thought provoking as last year's, but since every year has a different poet selecting the poems for the anthology, I don't expect to "love" every year. What I can say is that every year, the the poems display excellent craft. Despite their craft, they are not always to my taste. That being said, I will continue to buy this series.

This "best" poetry anthology is a testament to the sad state of what qualifies as good poetry today--the hectic, the undecipherable, the unmusical, the prosaic, the unmemorable ... should I go on? We have here is essentially an academic exercise by academics for academics and MFAs--the more convoluted, senseless, and nonsensical it is, the more prized.Now, I'll rewrite the above into something that could find it's way into a "best" poetry anthology by juicing it up with gimmicks and nonsense punctuation and diction:This /"best"/ poetry anthology [is/ [a]] testament to the ***sad state*** o/f/ what// [1] qualifies as "good? poetry??? today--  testament to the ***sad state*** o/f/ what// [1] qualifies as "good? poetry??? today-- the hectic.......See what I did there!? But today, that's poetry!