Includes bibliographical references (pages 371-396) and index

Paradoxes and oxymorons / tito madera smith / The Ride / Richard Wilbur (1982) -- my dream about the second coming / Lucille Clifton (1982 / 1987) -- Possession / Carla Harryman (1982) -- Songs & sonnets / John Hollander (1983) -- More music / Carl Dennis (1984 / 1985) -- Saxophone / Liam Rector (1984) -- Incantation / (1984) -- Shoe from the waves / Robert Grenier (1984) -- Lightnin' blues / Rita Dove (1986) -- Target / A.R. Ammons (1987) -- Facing it / Yusef Komunyakaa (1987 / 1988) -- Hamatawk / Diane Glancy (1988 / 1991) -- Domestic mysticism / Lucie Brock-Broido (1988) -- Above the inland empire today / Killarney Clary (1989) -- Modern love / John Yau (1989) -- Oh / Robert Creeley (1990) -- December journal / Charles Wright (1990) -- The piano player explains himself / Allen Grossman (1991) -- An atlas of the difficult world XIII (Dedications) / Adrienne Rich (1991) -- Lamium / (1992) -- Self-portrait in Tyvek windbreaker / James Merrill (1992 / 1995) -- Salt / Linda Gregerson (1993 / 1996) -- Emptiness / Kay Ryan (1993) -- "A wooden eye, an 1884 silver dollar, a homemade explosive, a set of false teeth, and a 14-Karat gold ashtray" / Albert Goldbarth (1995 / 1998) -- honey jars of hair / Harryette Mullen (1995) -- Halley's Comet / Stanley Kunitz (1995) -- Letters to Zanzotto : Letter 3 / Michael Palmer (1995) -- Our Lady of the Snows / Robert Hass (1996) -- Key episodes from an earthly life / C.D. Wright (1996) -- Blood on the wheel / Juan Felipe Herrera (1999) -- A song that we still sing / Carter Revard (2001) -- Epigraph / Allan Peterson (2001) -- Our nature / Rae Armantrout (2001) -- Race / Elizabeth Alexander (2001) -- A / ppeal A / pple A / dam A / dream / Liz Waldner (2002) -- Please forward & / kari edwards (2003) -- Tonight / Agha Shahid Ali (1996 / 2003) -- [when he comes he is neither sun nor shade : a china doll] / D.A. Powell (2004) -- Sans serif / Angie Estes (2005) -- To the wires overhead / W.S. Merwin (2005 / 2007) -- On sleep / Bernadette Mayer (2005) -- Moab / Donald Revell (2005 / 2007) -- The blue terrance / Terrance Hayes (2006) -- Futures / Jorie Graham (2007 / 2008) -- Miss Weariness / Laura Kasischke (2007) -- Song of the mortar and pestle / Frank Bidart (2008) -- Lustron : the house America has been waiting for / Robyn Schiff (2008) -- Q is for the quick / Mary Jo Bang (2009) -- Viagra / Lucia Perillo (2009) -- The workhorse / Melissa Range (2010) -- Prescription / Joseph Massey (2011) -- Date : post glacial / dg nanouk okpik (2012) -- Class / (2012) -- Oversized T-shirts / Gabby Bess (2012 / 2013) -- Hide-and-seek with God / Brenda Shaughnessy (2012) -- You and your partner go to see the film / Claudia Rankine (2014) -- Oulipo / Brandon Som (2014) -- Weeping / Ross Gay (2015).