Table of Contents
The Bird That Sang I Am Christian Wiman xiii
I Belong There Mahmoud Darwish (translated from the Arabic Munir Akash Carolyn Forché) 3
My dreams, my works, must wait till after hell Gwendolyn Brooks 4
The Niagara River Kay Ryan 6
Innocence Patrick Kavanagh 7
Singing in My Difficult Mountains Jack Gilbert 9
Old Fisherman with Guitar George MacKay Brown 10
Locals James Lasdun 12
This Anne Stevenson 14
Earthmoving Malediction Heather McHugh 15
Indian Boarding School: The Runaways Louise Erdrich 16
The Idea of Ancestry Etheridge Knight 18
Birthplace: New Rochelle George Oppen 20
Ö Rita Dove 22
A Hole in the Floor Richard Wilbur 24
Old Houses Melvin B. Tolson 26
Toward the Solstice Adrienne Rich 28
Moving In Audre Lorde 34
Housecooling William Matthews 36
What Good Poems Are For Tom Wayman 37
A Postcard from the Volcano Wallace Stevens 39
Study the masters Lucille Clifton 41
Balance Marilyn Nelson 43
This Room and Everything in It Li-Young Lee 44
From Sabbath Poems, 1997 Wendell Berry 47
Shema Primo Levi (translated from the Italian Ruth Feldman Brian Swann) 56
The Guest Ellen at the Supper for Street People David Ferry 57
The Master's House Solmaz Sharif 59
From the Garden of the Women Once Fallen Lorna Goodison 62
At Tikal William Bronk 65
Fable of the House Robert Kelly 67
If China Stanislaw Baranczak (translated from the Polish Magnus J. Krynski) 70
May 24, 1980 Joseph Brodsky 72
Empathy A. E. Stallings 73
The Boatman Carolyn Forché 75
Vocative Amit Majmudar 77
Bilingual/Bilingüe Rhina Espaillat 78
Flint-Chant Atsuro Riley 79
The Bennett Springs Road Julia Randall 81
How Stars Start Al Young 82
The Eighth Elegy Rainer Maria Rilke (translated from the German Stephen Mitchell) 86
Lot's Wife Anna Akhmatova (translated from the Russian Richard Wilbur) 89
Ode to the Hotel Near the Children's Hospital Kevin Young 92
Sparrow Trapped in the Airport Averill Curdy 94
Prayer Carol Ann Duffy 96
From Choruses from "The Rock" T. S. Eliot 97
Snake D. H. Lawrence 99
Grace Joy Harjo 104
Seabird's Blessing Alice Oswald 106
The Sound of Trees Robert Frost 107
Family Prime Mark Van Doren 109
From Glanmore Sonnets Seamus Heaney 111
After Making Love We Hear Footsteps Galway Kinnell 114
Homeland Security Geoffrey Brock 115
Home Again, Home Again Marilyn L. Taylor 117
Life Is a Carnival Karen Solie 118
Exodus 10 Eve Ewing 121
Ode to Gentrification Samantha Thornhill 123
The Landlady Margaret Atwood 125
Persons from Porlock Rosamund Stanhope 127
[What happiness] Álvaro De Campos (Fernando Pessoa) (translated from the Portuguese Richard Zenith) 128
I Love That First Builder Gihan Omar (translated from the Arabic Kareem James Abu-Zeid) 131
The Stare's Nest by My Window W. B. Yeats 133
Tell the Bees Sarah Lindsay 134
Seven Laments for the War-Dead Yehuda Amichai (translated from the Hebrew Chana Bloch) 135
From summer, somewhere Danez Smith 142
In a Time of Peace Ilya Kaminsky 143
Ithaka C. P. Cavafy (translated from the Greek Edmund Keeley) 145
We Will Rise Sophia De Mello Breyner Andresen (translated from the Portuguese Richard Zenith) 147
Harbour Miroslav Holub (translated from the Czech Ian Milner George Theiner) 148
(Valent)Lines for A. Peter Cole 151
An Old-fashioned Traveller on the Trade Routes Rosemary Tonks 152
Bohemia Lies by the Sea Ingeborg Bachmann (translated from the German Peter Filkins) 153
From The Addresses Katie Ford 156
Old Mama Saturday Marie Ponsot 159
Poet's Work Lorine Niedecker 161
Silence Marianne Moore 163
The Sorrow Miyó Vestrini (translated from the Spanish Anne Boyer Cassandra Gillig) 164
From The Quest W. H. Auden 165
The Displaced of Capital Anne Winters 167
Urgent Story Tess Gallacher 169
St. Elizabeth Aracelis Girmay 171
Greenock at Night I Find You W. S. Graham 174
Those Winter Sundays Robert Hayden 178
The Church of the Open Crayon Box Patricia Lockwood 179
Kitchen Fable Eleanor Ross Taylor 181
At Eighty-three She Lives Alone Ruth Stone 182
Filling Station Elizabeth Bishop 184
Question May Swenson 186
Eden Rock Charles Causley 187
Winding Up Derek Walcott 188
Nursing Home Les Murray 189
From The Life of Towns Anne Carson 190
Book Ends Tony Harrison 192
The Solitary Land Adonis (translated from the Arabic Kareem James Abu-Zeid Ivan Eubanks) 194
From Anna Liffey Eavan Boland 196
Black Map Bei Dao (translated from the Chinese Eliot Weinberger) 197
These William Carlos Williams 199
From Blues Kamau Brathwaite 202
From On R.L.S. and Happiness Vicki Hearne 204
For Harold Bloom A. R. Ammons 205
Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout Gary Snyder 208
Acknowledgments 209
Credits 211
