In his charming and candid introduction Collins explains how he chose seventy-five poems from among the thousands he considered. With insightful comments from the poets illuminating their work, and series editor David Lehman's thought-provoking foreword, The Best American Poetry 2006 is a brilliant addition to a series that links the most noteworthy verse and prose poems of our time to a readership as discerning as it is devoted to the art of poetry.

-- Robert Pinsky

Contents

Foreword by David Lehman

Introduction by Billy Collins

Kim Addonizio, "Verities"

Dick Allen, "'See the Pyramids Along the Nile'"

Craig Arnold, from "Couple from Hell"

John Ashbery, "A Worldly Country"

Jesse Ball, "Speech in a Chamber"

Krista Benjamin, "Letter from My Ancestors"

Ilya Bernstein, "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby"

Gaylord Brewer, "Apologia to the Blue Tit"

Tom Christopher, "Rhetorical Figures"

Laura Cronk, "Sestina for the Newly Married"

Carl Dennis, "Our Generation"

Stephen Dobyns, "Toward Some Bright Moment"

Denise Duhamel, "'Please Don't Sit Like a Frog, Sit Like a Queen'"

Stephen Dunn, "The Land of Is"

Beth Ann Fennelly, "Souvenir"

Megan Gannon, "List of First Lines"

Amy Gerstler, "For My Niece Sidney, Age Six"

Sarah Gorham, "Bust of a Young Boy in the Snow"

George Green, "The Death of Winckelmann"

Debora Greger, "My First Mermaid"

Eamon Grennan, "The Curve"

Daniel Gutstein, "Monsieur Pierre est mort"

R. S. Gwynn, from "Sects from A to Z"

Rachel Hadas, "Bird, Weasel, Fountain"

Mark Halliday, "Refusal to Notice Beautiful Women"

Jim Harrison, "On the Way to the Doctor's"

Robert Hass, "The Problem of Describing Color"

Christian Hawkey, "Hour"

Terrance Hayes, "Talk"

Bob Hicok, "My career as a director"

Katia Kapovich, "The Ferry"

Laura Kasischke, "At Gettysburg"

Joy Katz, "Just a second ago"

David Kirby, "Seventeen Ways from Tuesday"

Jennifer L. Knox, "The Laws of Probability in Levittown"

Ron Koertge, "Found"

John Koethe, "Sally's Hair"

Mark Kraushaar, "Tonight"

Julie Larios, "Double Abecedarian: Please Give Me"

Dorianne Laux, "Demographic"

Reb Livingston, "That's Not Butter"

Thomas Lux, "Eyes Scooped Out and Replaced by Hot Coals"

Paul Muldoon, "Blenheim"

Marilyn Nelson, "Albert Hinckley"

Richard Newman, "Briefcase of Sorrow"

Mary Oliver, "The Poet with His Face in His Hands"

Danielle Pafunda, "Small Town Rocker"

Mark Pawlak, "The Sharper the Berry"

Bao Phi, "Race"

Donald Platt, "Two Poets Meet"

Lawrence Raab, "The Great Poem"

Betsy Retallack, "Roadside Special"

Liz Rosenberg, "The Other Woman's Point of View"

J. Allyn Rosser, "Discounting Lynn"

Kay Ryan, "Thin"

Mary Jo Salter, "A Phone Call to the Future"

Vijay Seshadri, "Memoir"

Alan Shapiro, "Misjudged Fly Ball"

Charles Simic, "House of Cards"

Gerald Stern, "Homesick"

James Tate, "The Loser"

Sue Ellen Thompson, "Body English"

Tony Towle, "Misprision"

Alison Townsend, "What I Never Told You About the Abortion"

Paul Violi, "Counterman"

Ellen Bryant Voigt, "Harvesting the Cows"

David Wagoner, "The Driver"

Charles Harper Webb, "Prayer to Tear the Sperm-Dam Down"

C. K. Williams, "Ponies"

Terence Winch, "Sex Elegy"

Susan Wood, "Gratification"

Franz Wright, "A Happy Thought"

Robert Wrigley, "Religion"

David Yezzi, "The Call"

Dean Young, "Clam Ode"

Contributors' Notes and Comments

Magazines Where the Poems Were First Published

Acknowledgments