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Best Of The Best 2007 Poems Come From Familiar Poets

By KAREN HAYMON LONG

Published: September 16, 2007

'The Best American Poetry 2007,' edited by Heather McHugh (Scribner, $30)

It surprised me a little that the poems I liked best in this 169-page volume were by established, prize-winning poets. I had hoped I would be bowled over by someone new.

But not until Page 22 did I read a poem that seemed so smart and so right that I thought, 'This is really good.'

Of course, it would be. 'The News Today' was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Billy Collins, who takes mundane news - 'the marriage of two chimps in a zoo in California, snow predicted for late in the afternoon ... a new translation of Catullus' - then spins into a smart ode to Catullus, the Roman poet who predated Christ.

Fast-forward to Page 40 for another excellent one: 'The Master,' by Donald Hall, then to Page 46 and to one of my favorite poets, Robert Hass, with 'Bush's War.'

Finally, on Page 104, a poem by Brian Turner, a poet I did not know, seemed equal to those of the masters. 'What Every Soldier Should Know' reflects Turner's experiences as an Iraq veteran:

'You will hear the RPG coming for you.

Not so the roadside bomb.

There are bombs under the overpasses,

In trash piles, in bricks, in cars ...

Small children who will play with you,

Old men with their talk, women who offer chai -

And any one of them

May dance over your body tomorrow.'

Overall, the poems in this 169-page book are good and worth reading. But expect to be most impressed by names you most likely know.

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