Notes

TOC: Introduction / Billy Collins -- 1. Introduction to Poetry / Billy Collins -- 2. Selecting a Reader / Ted Kooser -- 3. Not Bad, Dad, Not Bad / Jan Heller Levi -- 4. Singing Back the World / Dorianne Laux -- 5. The Pink Car / Mark Halliday -- 6. Acting / Suzanne Cleary -- 7. The Cord / Leanne O'Sullivan -- 8. Ode: The Capris / Mark Halliday -- 9. Bringing My Son to the Police Station to Be Fingerprinted / Shoshauna Shy -- 10. On the Death of a Colleague / Stephen Dunn -- 11. The Space Heater / Sharon Olds -- 12. Numbers / Mary Cornish -- 13. Lines / Martha Collins -- 14. Listen / Miller Williams -- 15. Unholy Sonnets / Mark Jarman -- 16. Poem for Salt / Leroy C. Quintana -- 17. The Hand / Mary Ruefle -- 18. Where I Was / Dan Brown -- 19. hoop snake / Rebecca Wee -- 20. Bestiary for the Fingers of My Right Hand / Charles Simic -- 21. The Summer I Was Sixteen / Geraldine Connolly -- 22. Did I Miss Anything? / Tom Wayman -- 23. Song of Smoke / Kevin Young -- 24. Autobiographia / G.E. Patterson -- 25. White Towels / Richard Jones -- 26. To You / Kenneth Koch -- 27. It's Raining in Love / Richard Brautigan -- 28. Moderation Kills (Excusez-Moi, Je Suis Sick as a Dog) / David Kirby -- 29. Mrs. Midas / Carol Ann Duffy -- 30. The Oldest Living Thing in L.A. / Larry Levis -- 31. Little Father / Li-Young Lee -- 32. Alzheimer's / Bob Hicok -- 33. The Book of Hand Shadows / Marianne Boruch -- 34. Sidekicks / Ronald Koertge -- 35. A Poetry Reading at West Point / William Matthews -- 36. Only One of My Deaths / Dean Young -- 37. I'm A Fool to Love You / Cornelius Eady -- 38. Love Poem 1990 / Peter Meinke -- 39. Passer-by, these are words ... / Yves Bonnefoy -- 40. Wheels / Jim Daniels -- 41. Rain / Naomi Shihab Nye -- 42. A Myopic Child / Yannis Ritsos -- 43. At the Other End of the Telescope / George Bradley -- 44. praise song / Lucille Clifton -- 45. The Man into Whose Yard You Should Not Hit Your Ball / Thomas Lux -- 46. The Farewell / Edward Field -- 47. The Partial Explanation / Charles Simic -- 48. Poem for Adlai Stevenson and Yellow Jackets / David Young -- 49. The Late Passenger / C.S. Lewis -- 50. On a 3 1/2 Oz. Lesser Yellowlegs, Departed Boston August 28, Shot Martinique September 3 / Eamon Grennan -- 51. Tour / Carol Snow -- 52. After Us / Connie Wanek -- 53. Poetry / Don Paterson -- 54. The Fathers / Elizabeth Holmes -- 55. The High School Band / Reed Whittemore -- 56. The Bell / Richard Jones -- 57. Dearborn North Apartments Chicago, Illinois / Lola Haskins -- 58. Gouge, Adze, Rasp, Hammer / Chris Forhan -- 59. The Bruise of This / Mark Wunderlich -- 60. 1-800-HOT-RIBS / Catherine Bowman -- 61. The Printer's Error / Aaron Fogel -- 62. Cartoon Physics, part 1 / Nick Flynn -- 63. Advice from the Experts / Bill Knott -- 64. She Didn't Mean to Do It / Daisy Fried -- 65. Snow / David Berman -- 66. Six One-Line Film-Scripts / Tom Andrews -- 67. I Finally Managed to Speak to Her / Hal Sirowitz -- 68. Before She Died / Karen Chase -- 69. In the Well / Andrew Hudgins -- 70. The Sonogram / Paul Muldoon -- 71. Love Like Salt / Lisel Mueller -- 72. Through the Window of the All-Night Restaurant / Nicholas Christopher -- 73. The Assassination of John Lennon as Depicted by the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum, Niagara Falls, Ontario, 1987 / David Wojahn -- 74. Barbie's Ferrari / Lynne McMahon -- 75. A Romance for the Wild Turkey / Paul Zimmer -- 76. Ye White Antarctic Birds / Lisa Jarnot -- 77. St. Francis and the Sow / Galway Kinnell -- 78. Killing the Animals / Wesley McNair -- 79. The Old Liberators / Robert Hedin -- 80. Sentimental Moment or Why Did the Baguette Cross the Road? / Robert Hershon -- 81. Grammar / Tonay Hoagland -- 82. Plague Victims Catapulted over Walls into Besieged City / Thomas Lux -- 83. In Tornado Weather / Judith Kerman -- 84. The Portuguese in Mergui / George Green -- 85. No Return / William Matthews -- 86. The Panic Bird / Robert Phillips -- 87. A Hunger / Benjamin Saltman -- 88. Otherwise / Jane Kenyon -- 89. Happy Marriage / Taslima Nasrin -- 90. At Navajo Monument Valley Tribal School / Sherman Alexie -- 91. Hamlet Off-Stage: Laertes Cool / D.C. Berry -- 92. Lesson / Forrest Hamer -- 93. Football / Louis Jenkins -- 94. Fat Is Not a Fairy Tale / Jane Yolen -- 95. Sister Cat / Frances Mayes -- 96. The Bagel / David Ignatow -- 97. On Swimming / Adam Zagajewski -- 98. Song Beside a Sippy Cup / Jenny Factor -- 99. Watching the Mayan Women / Luisa Villani -- 100. Queen Herod / Carol Ann Duffy -- 101. Video Blues / Mary Jo Salter -- 102. Smoking / Elton Glaser -- 103. Old Men Playing Basketball / B.H. Fairchild -- 104. Gratitude to Old Teachers / Robert Bly -- 105. June 11 / David Lehman -- 106. Vegetarian Physics / David Clewell -- 107. My Life / Joe Wenderoth -- 108. Nuclear Winter / Edward Nobles -- 109. Message: Bottle #32 / J. Allyn Rosser -- 110. Waves / Robin Robertson -- 111. no. 6 / Charles Bukowski -- 112. Tuesday Morning, Loading Pigs / David Lee -- 113. For Mohammed Zeid, Age 15 / Naomi Shihab Nye -- 114. Small Comfort / Katha Pollitt -- 115. Skin / Lucia Perillo -- 116. Telephone Repairman / Joseph Millar -- 117. What I Would Do / Marc Petersen -- 118. The Meadow / Kate Knapp Johnson -- 119. Rotary / Christina Pugh -- 120. Sax's and Selves / Mark Halliday -- 121. Black Leather Because Bumblebees Look Like It / Diane Wakoski -- 122. Beyond Recall / Sharon Bryan -- 123. Alley Cat Love Song / Dana Gioia -- 124. Goodbye to the Old Life / Wesley McNair -- 125. For "Fiddle-De-De" / John Hollander -- 126. Country Fair / Charles Simic -- 127. Part of Eve's Discussion / Marie Howe -- 128. Birth Day / Elise Paschen -- 129. On Not Flying to Hawaii / Alison Luterman -- 130. The Poem of Chalk / Philip Levine -- 131. My Father's Hats / Mark Irwin -- 132. Of Politics & Art / Norman Dubie -- 133. Loud Music / Stephen Dobyns -- 134. Elevator Music / Henry Taylor -- 135. A Wreath to the Fish / Nancy Willard -- 136. ballplayer / Evie Shockley -- 137. The Green One over There / Katia Kapovich -- 138. May / Bruce Weigl -- 139. The Quest / Sharon Olds -- 140. In Simili Materia / Timothy Russell -- 141. Words for Worry / Li-Young Lee -- 142. In Praise of BIC Pens / David Hilton -- 143. The Other World / Robert Wrigley -- 144. The Grammar Lesson / Steve Kowit -- 145. Fast Break / Edward Hirsch -- 146. The Invention of Heaven / Dean Young -- 147. Saturday at the Canal / Gary Soto -- 148. Doing Without / David Ray -- 149. The Death of Santa Claus / Charles Webb -- 150. Ladies and Gentlemen in Outer Space / Ron Padgett -- 151. Thanksgiving / Mac Hammond -- 152. Dog's Death / John Updike -- 153. Hound Song / Donald Finkel -- 154. A Metaphor Crosses the Road / Martha McFerren -- 155. The Swan at Edgewater Park / Ruth L. Schwartz -- 156. The Blizzard / Phillis Levin -- 157. Where is She? / Peter Cherches -- 158. Coffee in the Afternoon / Alberto Rios -- 159. One Morning / Eamon Grennan -- 160. Animals / Miller Williams -- 161. God Says Yes to Me / Kaylin Haught -- 162. The Perfect Heart / Shara McCallum -- 163. The Birthday / Elizabeth Seydel Morgan -- 164. Not Swans / Susan Ludvigson -- 165. I Wish in the City of Your Heart / Robley Wilson -- 166. The Accompanist / William Matthews -- 167. The Wolf of Gubbio / William Matthews -- 168. 49[superscript th] Birthday Trip (What Are You On?) / Samuel Menashe -- 169. How Many Times / Marie Howe -- 170. The History of Poetry / Peter Cooley -- 171. The Dead / Susan Mitchell -- 172. Social Security / Terence Winch -- 173. The Student Theme / Ronald Wallace -- 174. Smell and Envy / Douglas Goetsch -- 175. The Yawn / Paul Blackburn -- 176. Blue Willow / Jody Gladding -- 177. Tuesday 9:00 AM / Denver Butson -- 178. Ordinance on Arrival / Naomi Lazard -- 179. 96 Vandam / Gerald Stern -- 180. What He Thought / Heather McHugh.