The Pushcart Book of Poetry: The Best Poems from Three Decades of the Pushcart Prize

This gigantic volume of recent verse is culled from Pushcart Prize annual anthologies, 1976 to the present, chosen by small-press editors and previous winners. Reappearing are 180 poems, in chronological order. The volume leads off with Adrienne Rich, marches through superb lyrics by Stanley Kunitz, Linda Gregerson and Rosanna Warren, and brandishes aphorisms from Derek Walcott ("all revolution is rooted in crime"), Philip Levine ("So many poems begin where they/ should end, and never end"), and others. Readers seeking clear situations and boldly stated emotion may find more to like than readers who prefer the reverse, though there's something for almost everyone. The standouts are often the long poems, a rarity for anthologies, which this book's project almost demands—Leslie Scalapino's fugue about girlhood, for example, and Lynda Hull's scorching seven-part elegy "Suite for Emily." Though Pushcart's slogan, "best of the small presses," suggests writers rescued from obscurity, many poets here are mainstream names, like Levine, Heaney, Stern and Wright. Also included are less famous poets like the raw and haunting Brigit Pegeen Kelly—perhaps the strongest among the discoveries this big book permits. (Mar.)