THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY 2021
Guest Editor: TRACY K. SMITH

 
 
 

Table of Contents

Louise Glück, Night School
Appeared in: The Threepenny Review
Rosa Alcala, The Pyramid Scheme
Appeared in: Green Mountains Review
LAUREN K. ALLEYNE, Divination
Appeared in: Orion Magazine
Jabari Asim, Some Call It God
Appeared in: Poem-a-Day
Joshua Bennett, Benediction
Appeared in: Literary Hub
Destiny O. Birdsong, love poem that ends at popeyes
Appeared in: The Kenyon Review
Susan Briante, Further Exercises
Appeared in: The Brooklyn Rail
Jericho Brown, Work
Appeared in: The Art Section
Christopher Buckley, After Tu Fu
Appeared in: Five Points
Victoria Chang, Marfa, Texas
Appeared in: New England Review
Chen Chen , The School of Eternities
Appeared in: Ploughshares
Su Cho, Abecedarian for ESL in West Lafayette Indiana
Appeared in: New England Review
Ama Codjoe, After the Apocalypse
Appeared in: The Yale Review
Henri Cole, Gross National Unhappiness
Appeared in: The American Scholar
Billy Collins, On the Deaths of Friends
Appeared in: The Paris Review
Adam O. Davis, Interstate Highway System
Appeared in: The Believer
Kwame Dawes, Before the Riot
Appeared in: World Literature Today
Toi Derricotte, The Great Beauty
Appeared in: The New Yorker
Jay Deshpande, A Child's Guide to Grasses
Appeared in: New England Review
Natalie Diaz, lake-loop
Appeared in: Poem-a-Day
Alex Dimitrov, Love
Appeared in: American Poetry Review
Rita Dove, Naji, 14. Philadelphia
Appeared in: The Paris Review
Camille T. Dungy, This'll hurt me more
Appeared in: Literary Hub
Louise Erdrich, Stone Love
Appeared in: Freeman's
Kathy Fagan, Conqueror
Appeared in: The Kenyon Review
Chanda Feldman, They Ran and Flew from You
Appeared in: Southwest Review
Nikky Finney, I Feel Good
Appeared in: The Atlantic Monthly
Nancy Miller Gomez, Tilt-A-Whirl
Appeared in: New Ohio Review
Jorie Graham, I Won't Live Long
Appeared in: The New Yorker
Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Hunger
Appeared in: The Paris Review
Francine J. Harris, Sonata in F Minor, K. 183: Allegro
Appeared in: The New York Review of Books
Terrance Hayes, George Floyd
Appeared in: The New Yorker
Edward Hirsch, Waste Management
Appeared in: Five Points
Ishion Hutchinson, David
Appeared in: The New York Review of Books
Didi Jackson, Two Mule Deer
Appeared in: The Kenyon Review
Major Jackson, Double Major
Appeared in: The Yale Review
Amaud Jamaul Johnson, So Much for America
Appeared in: The Southern Review
Yusef Komunyakaa, Wheelchair
Appeared in: The Paris Review
Dana Levin, Immigrant Song
Appeared in: The Nation
Ada Limón, The End of Poetry
Appeared in: The New Yorker
James Logenbach, In the Village
Appeared in: American Poetry Review
Warren C. Longmire, Meditations on a Photograph of Historic Rail Women
Appeared in: American Poetry Review
Emily Lee Luan, When My Sorrow Was Born
Appeared in: New Ohio Review
Francisco Márquez, Provincetown
Appeared in: The Common
Dora Malech, All the Stops
Appeared in: The Southampton Review
Sally Wen Mao, Playing Dead
Appeared in: The Kenyon Review
Hannah Marshall, This Is a Love Poem to Trees
Appeared in: New Ohio Review
Shane McCrae, The Hastily Assembled Angel on Care and Vitality
Appeared in: The Yale Review
Lupe Mendez, There Is Only You
Appeared in: Green Mountains Review
Francine Merasty, Since Time Immemorial
Appeared in: Alaska Quarterly Review
Yesenia Montilla, a brief meditation on breath
Appeared in: Poem-a-Day
Kamilah Aisha Moon, Irony
Appeared in: American Poetry Review
Stanley Moss, A Smiling Understanding
Appeared in: The Nation
Dg Nanouk Okpik, When White Hawks Come
Appeared in: Poem-a-Day
Cecily Parks, December
Appeared in: The New Yorker
Patrick Phillips, Elegy with Table Saw & Cobwebs
Appeared in: New England Review
Roger Reeves, For Black Children at the End of the World--and the Beginning
Appeared in: Poem-a-Day
Ed Roberson, For Air
Appeared in: Poetry
Margaret Ross, Blood
Appeared in: The Yale Review
Angbeen Saleem, brown and black people on shark tank
Appeared in: Pigeon Pages
Nicole Sealey, Pages 5-8 (An excerpt from The Ferguson Report: An Erasure)
Appeared in: The Paris Review
Evie Shockley, women's voting rights at one hundred (but who's counting?)
Appeared in: American Poets
Darius Simpson, What Is There to Do in Akron, Ohio?
Appeared in: New Ohio Review
Patricia Smith, The Stuff of Astounding: A Golden Shovel for Juneteenth
Appeared in: The New York Times
Monica Sok, Ode to the Boy Who Jumped Me
Appeared in: Poem-a-Day
Adrienne Su, Chinese Restaurant Syndrome
Appeared in: Bennington Review
Arthur Sze, Acequia del Llano
Appeared in: The Kenyon Review
Paul Tran, Copernicus
Appeared in: The New Yorker
Phuong T. Vuong, The Beginning of the Beginning
Appeared in: American Poetry Review
John Sibley Williams, The Dead Just Need to Be Seen. Not Forgiven
Appeared in: Southern Indiana Review
L. Ash Williams, Red Wine Spills
Appeared in: Poem-a-Day
Shelley Wong, How to Live in Southern California
Appeared in: The Kenyon Review
John Yau, Overnight
Appeared in: Hambone
Monica Youn, Caution (from 'Deracinations: Seven Sonigrams')
Appeared in: Ploughshares
Keving Young, Dog Tags
Appeared in: Ploughshares

 

 
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