3.5 stars. I always enjoy these annual collections for the chance to read from so many different poets. This volume had a bit more of a political undertone than the previous few, which I found refreshing and relevant.

This was a nice collection of some new poetry, with enough variation to give every reader something they will enjoy. A good starter for people interested in reading more poetry.

Reading The Best American Poetry edition is one of the highlights of my year. I always discover new poets or new poems by contemporary favorites. This year was no exception.

This year's collection is a decidedly mixed bag with some stellar moments amidst a lot of anger over the political climate. A lot of familiar names from the contemporary poetry world.

This was a great collection of poetry. I saw some of my favorite poets and their poems in there, and I read a lot of new poems by poets I haven't heard of. I thought the curated selections was great.

looking for inspiration for my own poetry in "The Best American Poetry 2019" was a marvelous idea. Filled with contemporary, moving poetry of all types, this makes for a perfect coffee table book / font of inspiration for the aspiring poet.

As with any poetry collection, the poems in The Best American Poetry 2019 were hit or miss. There were, however, a great number of beautiful poems that vastly outweighed the not-as-beautiful ones, earning this collection a 4/5.

Some of my favorite poems from this collection include: "I Now Pronounce You Dead" by Martín Espada, "On Confessionalism" by John Murillo and "The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady & The Dead & The Truth" by Morgan Parker,

The 2019 edition of The Best American Poetry begins with an impassioned introduction by David Lehman on political correctness in today's society. Major Jackson is the guest editor this year and poses the theme of artistic dignity vs street cred. With both of the introductions, I was expecting the poetry to follow suit. The poetry, however, doesn't seem to have the punch I was expecting from the introductions. Although very modern in form and seemingly less conservative, although not less controversial, then past editions, this does not seem to be a "best of" collection. Rather than the more themed collections of past years, this year's edition seems to cover a wide spectrum, like a survey. It could be the "street cred" of this edition that has left me, for the first time, feeling slightly disappointed. Maybe like music readers develop an ear for only certain types of poetry. Perhaps, it is just me getting old and clinging to the more traditional type of poetry rather than embracing the new. A few poems did stand out from the many; most notably Deborah Landau's "Soft Targets."

This is one of the best editions of Best American Poetry I’ve read. I did not enjoy the last few years, but this was much more fresh, accessible, and diverse. It was not full of dull poets that were trying too hard, which is my complaint about most editions of this series. Loved it.

This is another great entry in the Best American Poetry series. I loved the variety here - the selections were just superb and I felt like I got to discover many new poets while revisiting some favorites who appear nearly every year. Overall, I think this is one of the best yearly anthologies.

With the wide range of literary work in the world of reading, its nice to be able to return to these annual collections from series editor David Lehman.

This collection, like its predecessors, is a distillation of words from poets who are widely known and even less familiar voices. They have been gathered from a wide range of literary journals.

A number of works standout, but here are a select few: “Six ‘Obits’” by Victoria Chang, “Update in Werewolves” by Margaret Atwood, “America Will Be” by Joshua Bennett...and, of course, many others, including work by Leonard Cohen, Natalie Diaz, Sharon Olds, Paul Muldoon, and still others.

Warmly recommended.

A fantastic collection of poetry a book I will be dipping into again& again .A book to keep on your nightstand to enjoy a special poem or discover a new favorite.#netgalley #scribner.

The Best American Poetry 2019 is a great collection of poems that were a delight to read. Most were well written and this would make a great gift.

Thank you Net Galley, Scribner, and David Lehman and Major Jackson for this e-copy top read and review.

There are many entries in this anthology/collection that I had a hard time understanding, but that's how it seems to go with me when it comes to poetry. But still, I give poetry a chance, collect the gems, and take them with me. There are several gems in this one.

"The Best American Poetry 2019" is another fantastic collection of poetry. I'll definitely be recommending this one.

I have to give this anthology 5 stars because the best in it is surely 5 stars, and if not to me, to someone else. My main source of conflict is that I find I need the series editor or even this volume editor to define their use of the word "American." I assumed USA, since that is the fairly standard use of American on its own, while acknowledging that this has always been problematic. But two fairly prominent Canadians appear in these pages - Margaret Atwood and Leonard Cohen. Margaret is known in her disdain for America (we are always her model for dystopia, after all, love you Margaret) and Leonard is a pure Canadian who can't possibly have written any new poetry in the last year (except there is new work in a 2018 collection, and I need to read this - The Flame.) And if this is indeed North American, where are the first-nations poets, the trans-Chinese-immigrant poets, the French translated poets from the various regions of Canada, all of whom I read extensively and loved last year? And if this is North American, where is Mexico? Why call it American if that's not the intent? I really am confused. I really think this needs clarification. I reread the preface and the intro but they are not clear.

I did enjoy the introduction by the series editor explaining how he chose the poems that "braved human connection" and were from multiple perspectives. He includes song lyrics, which I appreciated. And one of the reasons I love these anthologies is that I tend to read single-poet collections and they tend to select poems from various periodicals, which of course is often where they first appear. I prefer mine in context of a poet's work; there are other types of context that are useful - political, thematical, tribute, etc. So I don't often find poems I've previously encountered, although there are a few in this collection I've experienced in the past year.

Only one misstep in my book - the poem by Philip Schultz called "The Women's March" was nice enough, but who wants to read a poem about the women's movement by a man? Sorry, I'm certain Philip is a nice enough person, but can this truly be the most representative work? I also felt some of the really interesting female, Muslim, American+ immigrant/refugee poets are noticeably absent from the collection. Hopefully some of the voices from volumes like Halal If You Hear Me: The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 3 will surface by 2020.

My favorites included:

Six Obits by Victoria Chang (nice to have them as a set as they are sprinkled around various poetry publications otherwise)

I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party by Chen Chen (listen to the poet read it on SoundCloud, about the eternal coming out that happens in resistant families - I loved his first collection and look forward to the next!)

Drank a Lot by Leonard Cohen (read it on the )

Virgil, Hey by Camille Guthrie (read this poem of motherhood on New Republic)

The Undressing by Li-Young Lee (the most brainy sensual poem in existence, which I originally read in The Undressing: Poems but the individual poem can also be read at The American Poetry Review)

A Brief History of the Future Apocalypse by Rebecca Lindenberg

The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady & The Dead & The Truth by Morgan Parker (also in her collection Magical Negro, which everyone should read, you won't be sorry, but okay, you can also read it at Harper's Magazine)

Partly True Poem Reflected in a Mirror by Ocean Vuong (available on Poetry London, also read his novel - On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous)