It took a little while, but this book really grew on me. Prufer has a remarkable facility for musical language and an eerie, spooky sense of imagery. He also has terrific range: there are sonnets here as well as fragmented, elliptical poems. Some of these poems are wry and funny, others deadly serious - but Prufer, unlike so many of his contemporaries, never falls into the trap of easy, detached irony. The book culminates in a series of poems called "For the Dead" which are, quite frankly, amazing. He's one of the best of the young'uns. I'd give it 4.5 stars -- and am rounding up because of the beautiful book cover.

I use this book as an example of the MFA creating narrative poems of minor insight from suburban white kids who seem to think that by concentrating on the "darker moments," they are doing something, as if American Beauty has entered the academic halls,. But by this time these moves have become common. this was a disappointing tome from a fine editor--but being a good editor doesn't necesarrily make one a fine poet.

I loved this book. I think it represents a vast range of poetic ideas.
Also I think that it is a book digestable for all, scholars and idiots like myself. Reading this book gave me hope for the world of literature. Not that its the greatest book I ever read, but I believe reading this book has made me a better person and would do the same for others in all walks of life.

This anthology has caused a lot of hullaballoo recently. It seems everyone wants to have a say about who the "new young American poets" are. No one is going to like every poet in this anthology, but it is, overall, truly excellent--and, yes, democratic. That is, it's as democratic as a single editor can make it while still selecting based on his own tastes.

The poets represented come from many walks of life, write with various styles, are of many ethnicities, are from all parts of the country, etc. And, yes, they are well published, most of them -- probably because most of them are also quite good. But I'm a big reader of new poetry and many of these names were brand new to me, too

How disappointing to see the same old, same old represented here. While a few voices are fresh and interesting, the majority (whose poems have been encountered in too many publications lately) feel stale. This anthology contributes nothing new to the broad and exciting spectrum of today's poetry. See American Poetry: The Next Generation for a more democratic and surprising vision.

Most of the poets in this collection are good. That makes it better than most contemporary anthologies. I especially liked Ruth P. Schwartz, Mark Wunderlich, and Paul Beatty. A few are less good, but the book is a real service to people who want to find out what's happening right now in American poetry. And the poets' discussions in the back of the book are pretty interesting. Overall: very very good.

OK, this book has generated about as much hubbub as a poetry anthology is likely to generate. Everyone wants their say about who the next generation of poets is . . . and everyone will have a gripe with at least a couple of the people included here. Fact is, though, this is a very carefully put together selection of solid -- sometimes terrific -- poems by many of the most talented poets writing today. It's discerningly edited with a good ear for both the sense and the music of the poems.

Of course, if you want a truly democratic anthology, you'll have to go elsewhere. But why the hell should an anthology be democratic? Good anthologies have editors who enforce their own aesthetic values and tastes on the book--who select poems THEY like. In a way, good anthologies are anti-democratic. They go for range, of course, but ultimately have one person in making the decisions. Bad anthologies are often democratic, though. It takes no skill, after all, to include everyone . . . to merely survey the field.

I recommend this effort wholeheartedly. It'll inspire you or make you mad -- but there's a mind at work putting it together and lots of talent in the poems.