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With a Top 5 list of poetry books like this one, the expectation may be a bow to the romantic and lyric nature of verse. Do not be fooled! Graham Foust, one of my favorite contemporary poets, has written a coming-of-age of aging, all composed in a gorgeous and clever language game. He reminds me of James Salter or Saul Bellow, but stripped down to the very core. If my apartment were on fire, I'd be sure to grab this

Flowers does for me what a John Ashbery collection does: mystifies,

stifles, and causes a desire to mimic, leaving with it the eventual personal

failure to do so. These are signs of great poetry. Killebrew succeeds in creating

comic and anecdotal lines without tripping over them or making them

hip. He dares to write about what he had for breakfast, his hometown, and

of course, John Ashbery himself. His long poem "Forget Rita," previously published in chapbook form by Ugly Duckling Presse, is a true

Mort is a sledgehammer — sometimes to the heart, sometimes to the toes or kneecaps. She reminds me of a young (she's only in her late 20s!!) Zbigniew Herbert, but perhaps even more cutting, even more drastic in conceptualizing war (with such a powerful feminine angle) but creating a vision of hope. Yes, a sledgehammer, but also a master

Originally published in 1966 in Slovenia, Joshua Beckman's translations have brought Poker back to life and available to the masses. This is a serious book. Its importance is vast. Released in war-torn Slovenia, Salamun was arrested, his work banned. He gained great political acclaim and was the cultural figurehead of the poetry of the time. These poems are amazing. Using redundancy to a tasteful and profound level, he engrains something into the reader. It's one of those rare collections that combines the poetic with the political and makes everything real.

In this sonnet sequence, Lerner blends contemporary phrases — which portrays his youth and connectedness with popular culture — but also fuses a philosophical outlook in classic poetic form. He has dazzling wit, but also puts you in your place, shuts you up, and makes you keep reading. Lichtenberg Figures is a book that won't stay on your bookshelf long; it will more likely be on the nightstand, on the desk, bookmarked and underlined. You'll want to mimic and recreate Lerner — the sign of a great

Part of Louise Gluck's power squad of the Yale Younger Poets Series, Arda Collins dominated my poetry world this year. Both lonely and comical, Collins plays with God much like, dare I say, Berryman does in The Dream Songs. Collins shows me a place that I'm simply unable to go to on my own. Poetry fans, keep her on your radar, in the middle of