The Best American Poetry 2009

The Best American Poetry 2009, a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by poet David Wagoner, guest editor, who made the final selections, and David Lehman, the general editor for the series.

This book is the 22nd volume in the most popular annual poetry anthology in the United States.

Poets and poems included
Listed in alphabetical order by author's name:

John Ashbery, "They Knew What They Wanted" Appeared in: The London Review of Books

Caleb Barber, "Beasts and Violins" Appeared in: Poet Lore

Mark Bibbins, "Concerning the land to the South of Our Neighbors to the North" Appeared in: La Petite Zine

Bruce Bond, "Ringtone" Appeared in: Ploughshares

Marianne Boruch, "The Doctor" Appeared in: The Cincinnati Review

Fleda Brown, "Roofers" Appeared in: The Georgia Review

Catherine Carter, "The Book of Steve" Appeared in: Asheville Poetry Review

Suzanne Cleary, "From the Boy's Own Book: A Compleat Encyclopedia of All the Diversions Athletic, Scientific, and Recreative, of Boyhood and Youth, by William Clarke" Appeared in: Margie

Billy Collins, "The Great American Poem" Appeared in: The Virginia Quarterly Review

Rob Cook, "The Song of America" Appeared in: Fence

James Cummins, "Freud" Appeared in: The Antioch Review

Mark Doty, "Apparition (Favorite Poem)" Appeared in: Five Points

Denise Duhamel, "How It Will End" Appeared in: Barrow Street, Good Foot

Alice Friman, Getting Serious Appeared in: Ploughshares

Margaret Gibson, "Black Snake" Appeared in: The Georgia Review

Douglas Goetsch, "First Time Reading Freud" Appeared in: New York Quarterly

Albert Goldbarth, "Zones" Appeared in: Shenandoah

Barbara Goldberg, "The Fullness Thereof" Appeared in: The Gettysburg Review

Michael J. Grabell, "Definition of Terms" Appeared in: Southwest Review

Debora Greger, "Eve in the Fall" Appeared in: The New Criterion

Jennifer Grotz, "The Record" Appeared in: The Southern Review

Barbara Hamby, "Ode to Aireheads, Hairdos, Trains to and from Paris" Appeared in: Indiana Review

Sarah Hannah, "The Safe House" Appeared in: Painted Bride Quarterly

Jerry Harp, "Houses" Appeared in: Pleiades

Jim Harrison, "Sunday Discordancies" Appeared in: Five Points

Dolores Hayden, "Grave Goods" Appeared in: Southwest Review

Terrance Hayes, "A House is Not a Home" Appeared in: Callaloo

K. A. Hays, "The Way of All the Earth" Appeared in: The Antioch Review

Bob Hicok, "Mum's the Word" Appeared in: The Georgia Review

Daniel Hoffman, "A Democratic Vista" Appeared in: The New Criterion

Richard Howard, "Arthur Englander's Back in School" Appeared in: The New Republic

P. Hurshell, "In Winter" Appeared in: Calyx

Michael Johnson, "How to Be Eaten by a Lion" Appeared in: Mid-American Review

Tina Kelley, "To Yahweh" Appeared in: Southwest Review

Maud Kelly, "What I Think of Death, If Anyone's Asking" Appeared in: American Literary Review

Lance Larsen, "Why do you keep putting animals in your poems?" Appeared in: Indiana Review

Phillis Levin, "Open Field" Appeared in: The Kenyon Review

Philip Levine, "Words on the Wind" Appeared in: The Georgia Review

Sarah Lindsay, "Tell the Bees" Appeared in: Poetry

Thomas Lux, "The Happy Majority" Appeared in: American Poetry Review

Joanie Mackowski, "Boarding: Hamaris thysbe" Appeared in: The American Scholar

Christine Marshall, "Sweat" Appeared in: Cimarron Review

Cleopatra Mathis, "Canis" Appeared in: Provincetown Arts

J.D. McClatchy, "Lingering Doubts" Appeared in: Parnassus

W. S. Merwin, "The Silence of the Mine Canaries" Appeared in: Alaska Quarterly Review

Jude Nutter, "The Insect Collector's Demise" Appeared in: The Missouri Review

Sharon Olds, "Self-Exam" Appeared in: The New Yorker

Mary Oliver, "Red" Appeared in: Five Points

Linda Pastan, "Insomnia" Appeared in: The Virginia Quarterly Review

Kevin Prufer, "On Mercy" Appeared in: Field

Susan Blackwell Ramsey, "Pickled Heads: St. Petersburg" Appeared in: Prairie Schooner

Keith Ratzlaff, "Turn" Appeared in: The Journal

Adrienne Rich, "Tonight No Poetry Will Serve" Appeared in: The Nation

James Richardson, "Subject, Verb, Object" Appeared in: The New Yorker

Pattiann Rogers, "A Blind Astronomer in the Age of Stars" Appeared in: Alaska Quarterly Review

Gibbons Ruark, "John Clare's Finches" Appeared in: The New Republic

John Rybicki, "This Tape Measure Made of Light" Appeared in: Third Coast

Betsy Sholl, "Gravity and Grace" Appeared in: Image

Martha Silano, "Love" Appeared in: The Cincinnati Review

Mitch Sisskind, "Like a Monkey" Appeared in: Jacket

Tom Sleigh, "At the Pool" Appeared in: AGNI

Vincent Stanley, "At the New York Public Library, I heard Derek Walcott dismiss the prose poem" Appeared in: Fulcrum

Pamela Sutton, "Forty" Appeared in: American Poetry Review

Alexandra Teague, "Heartlines" Appeared in: New England Review

Craig Morgan Teicher, "Ultimately Justice Directs Them" Appeared in: No Tell Motel

Natasha Trethewey, "Liturgy" Appeared in: The Virginia Quarterly Review

Derek Walcott, "A Sea-Change" Appeared in: Harper's

Jeanne Murray Walker, "Holding Action" Appeared in: The Hudson Review

Ronald Wallace, "No Pegasus" Appeared in: Margie

Charles Harper Webb, "Her Last Conflagration" Appeared in: Salt Hill

Lisa Williams, "Leaving Saint Peter's Basilica" Appeared in: Measure

Carolyne Wright, "This dream the world is having about itself . . ." Appeared in: Iowa Review

Debbie Yee, "Cinderella's Last Will & Testament" Appeared in: OCHO

Kevin Young, "I shall be released" Appeared in: The Kenyon Review

Matthew Zapruder, "Never to Return" Appeared in: The Paris Review