Best American Poetry 2017 is a nice beautifully curated work of modern poetry. I enjoyed learning about new artists I had not previously known and seeing some familiar names as well. I would recommend this to any poetry lover.

I have come to count on Best American Poetry each year to help me keep up with new poets. I'm not sure I'd ever find their work otherwise - Thank you, NetGalley!

The BEST AMERICAN POETRY series collects a wide range of contemporary poems. An essential book for classrooms, libraries, and individual readers who want a middle-of-the-night or difficult-day companion to encourage them through rough spots and to inspire them to engage with language and possibility. I love it as a desk reference and use examples when organizing lesson plans for poetry writing workshops.

The 2017 collection is curated by former US Poet Laureate Natasha Tretheway, whose foreword sets the tone:

“Both my parents knew that I would need an ‘education by poetry’ to be safe in the world I’d entered. In 1966, when I was born, their interracial marriage was illegal in Mississippi and as many as twenty other states in the nation, rendering me illegitimate in the eyes of the law, persona non grata.”

Illuminated here are crosscurrents of American poetic soul, vibrating with poems that reckon with the difficult political moment of the current presidency. These poems sing to an America torn with racial conflict, alive with immigration questions, international wars, climate change, and so many other stresses. Poetry (metaphor, image, sound) is uniquely attuned to illuminate complicated truths and confusing moments of humanity. Here, readers will discover individual human experience (of more than 70 poets), a shared landscape, the shared moment of being alive in 2017 and claiming language and form to shape new literature.
Tretheway affirms: “We need the truth of poetry, and its beauty, now more than ever.”

Poets range from award-winning favorites like Terence Hayes, Carolyn Forché, Philip Levine, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Billy Collins to lesser known poets like Allison Cobb, whose lyrical prose poem “I Forgive You” catalogues body elements to both praise and lament the very stuff of life, the moment and power of a single body.

“I forgive you cells, all one hundred trillion, the inner ocean that has ebbed and flowed across three million years.”

Cobb’s poem reckons with evolution and the fragile place of the poet at this moment:

“I forgive you fingers. I forgive you wrists and palms. I forgive you web of veins, the nameless knuckles, twenty-seven bones, the nails and moons below.”

We also explore deep into the American South, as when Kevin Young travels Mississippi in “Money Road”. His stanza forms and enjambment remind me of the way that folds or scratches on a map might describe or obscure important landmarks.

“too grave—the fake
sharecropper homes
of Tallahatchie Flats rented out

along the road, staged bottle trees
chasing away nothing, the new
outhouse
whose crescent door foreign tourists

*
pay extra for. Cotton planted
in strict rows
for show. A quiet

snow globe of pain
I want to shake.
While the flakes fall

like ash we race
the train to reach the place
Emmet Till last

whistled or smiled
or did nothing.

Young invites the reader into this landscape, and to the hidden artifacts and legacies. Claiming also that:

“There are things
that cannot be seen

but must be. Buried…”

Poets find courage, again and again, in their creative, unique ways, to dig up, sift through face the horrible, the unspeakable, and yes, the wonders of it all, embracing the freedom of speech that is part of why the poets must continue to “Sing America” as did Langston Hughes remind us in an earlier era.

Another thing I love about this BEST AMERICAN collection is clear attention to poet biographies, which point readers toward other work, and illuminate moments of poetic inspiration. This is particularly useful when I curate poetry to teach, to be sure that a diversity of approaches, intentions, and cultural vantage points are shared with upcoming writers.

A great collection spanning subjects from the quiet and curious to the powerful and political.

Really enjoyed the poetry in this. It even had one of my former creative writing professor’s poem in here. That was a nice surprise. Highly recommend this book to poets and poetry lovers.

Best American Poetry 2017

by David Lehman; Natasha Trethewey

Scribner

Poetry

Pub Date 05 Sep 2017

I am reviewing a copy of Best American Poetry 2017 through Scribner and Netgalley:

This collection is edited by David Lehman with guest editor Natasha Tretheway who served two terms as the nineteenth Poet Laureatte 2012-2014 for the United States and 2012-2016 for the Poet Laureatte for Missississippi.

The poems in this collection deal with everything from war to racial relations. It deals with art as well as the art of poetry. The poems deal with everything from nature to life.

Some of the poems deal with forgiveness, from sickness to healing.

I give Best American Poetry four out of five stRs!

Happy Reading!

It took me awhile to get through this book because I wanted to savor it.
Poetry is the lifeblood, in my opinion. This collection of poetry introduced me to poets I'd never heard of before and styles of poetry I haven't dabbled in yet. It's refreshing to find new voices with fresh perspectives to occur. Poets that spoke to me specifically (and whom I really liked) were Carolyn Forche, Terrance Hayes, and John James. In fact, I loved "History (n.)" by John James. His writing style is gorgeous.

I enjoyed the maturity and narrative element of the poems. Reginald Gibbon's Canasta was like stepping back in time and reliving the struggles in 1953 Houston. What I really loved about this book of poems was the many lessons they had to offer. It wasn't the same old "love gone wrong" kind of work. The poetry captured the visceral and throbbing nature of life itself.

To be honest, the cover isn't very appealing. It reminds me of a textbook or a manual of sorts, which isn't enough to deter me but I know several people who wouldn't pick it up because it doesn't appear inviting. Also, the kindle format doesn't work too well, which can ruin the structure of poems. Again, this didn't turn me off but it did bug me a little. Overall, it's a diverse collection of poems that offer something for everyone.

Best American Poetry 2017 series edited by David Lehman and guest edited by Natasha Trethewey is the 30th edition of this collection. Lehman is a poet and the series editor for The Best American Poetry series. He teaches at The New School in New York City. Trethewey is an American poet who was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 2012 and again in 2014. She won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her 2006 collection Native Guard, and she is a former Poet Laureate of Mississippi. She is also the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, where she also directs the Creative Writing Program.

It has been a troublesome year for many. Lehmann opens with the controversial selection of Bob Dylan as the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. The selection divided many in the poetry field and was met by disappointment that a woman was not selected. Other were satisfied that some in the more bardish sense had won. Shortly afterward the United State held an election that further divided the country. Many in the arts were unhappy with the electoral results. Soon Twitter was ablaze with the "Resist" message from poets and writers. The new year also seemed to fill its pages with stories of police shooting unarmed men, women, and even children of color with follow-up stories of no charges filed against the shooter. For many, it was a fearful year and that despair is also reflected in this year's collection of poetry.

Bob Dylan only gets a passing mention in this collection by Chase Twichell in "Sad Song". However, the rest of the collection does reflect the other concerns in the previous paragraph. For those who read poetry because it offers an escape from modern problems and takes the reader to their own "Tintern Abbey", this collection is a reminder of the real world and your news feed. From the opening poem "Weapons Discharge Report" by Dan Albergotti through Monica Youn's "Greenacre" the tone is set. Pamela Sutton's "Afraid to Pray" almost seems to predict the recent trouble in Charlottesville.  R.T. Smith's "Maricon" reminds the reader that hatred goes deeper than race.  The poems are not all of rage but of reflection.  Danusha Lameris' "The Watch" runs deep.  

This year's Best American Poetry is not the escapism or the celebration usually associated with a "best" series.  It takes poetry as a voice of resistance and information.  Like people, in general, poetry can hide in the background and not become a political or social tool for change, but only for so long.  Arts are meant to be a reflection of society.  Today art is being cut in public schools to save costs.  The current proposed budget plans to cut both the NEA and NEH.  When art, as well as people, are threatened they fight back.  Here, poetry is using its voice to remind us what society and its leaders have become.  We are losing our ability to evade the outside world with arts be it reading, painting, or music. Although it would be hyperbole to compare this collection to Picasso's Guernica, it is a warning.

The Best American Poetry 2017 is a diverse collection of work that hits on a bit of everything from politics and race to personal relationships and contemplation. The collection also includes a wide range of writing styles that can appeal to every poetry reader's appetite.

There wasn't a single poem that stuck out to me as being a true masterpiece of the collection, but I will say that the collection as a whole is worth checking out--and much better than the 2016 collection. What I'm surprised about with this collection is the diverse style, range and subject matter, considering the small number of publications included from where these pieces were originally published. Those who enjoy reading poetry should be able to find a few pieces they like.

As with any poetic anthology there are hits and there are misses. What fascinated me were the poems that Tretheway, the guest editor, chose. It felt like she is allowing the reader into her concerns about identity, politics, religion, and race relations. Ultimately, this was a satisfying read.

What a disappointment this year's Best American is. Not one single surprise in here. All the boxes ticked; all the right groups represented without even a nod to what's really going on in the world of poetry right now.

The Best American Poetry collections never cease to live up to their reputations. Loved this one just as much.

Beautiful heartwarming collection. I liked the variety of styles and structures. It kept it interesting to the end.