Introduction: This is why / Tracy K. Smith
The small town of my youth. "Second estrangement" / Aracelis Girmay ; "In defense of small towns" / Oliver de la Paz ; "N'em" / Jericho Brown ; "Flat as a flitter" / Melissa Range ; "Sugar and brine: Ella's understanding" / Vievee Francis ; "The field trip" / Ellen Bryant ; "Mighty pawns" / Major Jackson ; from "summer, somewhere" / Danez Smith ; "Walking home" / Marie Howe ; "Music from childhood" / John Yau ; "Girls overheard while assembling a puzzle" / Mary Szybist ; "Passing" / Charif Shanahan
Something shines out from every darkness. "'Let me tell you about my marvelous god" / Susan Stewart ; "Sister as moving object" / Jan Beatty ; from "The split" / Susan Wheeler ; "The hypno-domme speaks, and speaks and speaks" / Patricia Lockwood ; "The poet at fifteen" / Erika L. Sanchez ; "My brother at 3 AM" / Natalie Diaz ; "Reverse suicide" / Matt Rasmussen ; "Charlottesville Nocturne" / Charles Wright ; "Downhearted" / Ada Limon ; "becoming a horse" / Ross Gay ; "After the diagnosis" / Christian Wiman ; "Heart/mind" / Laura Kasischke ;
Words tangled in debris. "Who's who" / Cathy Park Hong ; "Minimum wage" / Matthew Dickman ; "Proximities" / Lia Purpura ; "Story of girls" / Tina Chang ; "Fourth grade autobiography" / Donika Kelly ; "No" / Joy Harjo ; "The long deployment" / Jehanne Dubrow ; from "Personal effects" / Solmaz Sharif ; "We lived happily during the war" / Ilya Kaminsky ; "Phantom noise" / Brian Turner ; "Ten drumbeats to God" / Nathalie Handal
Here, the sentence will be respected. "38" / Layli Long Soldier
One singing thing. "Elegy" / Natasha Trethewey ; "Object permanence" / Nicole Sealey ; "Crowning" / Kevin Young ; "Hurrricane" / Yona Harvey ; "Requiem for fifth period and the things that went on then" / Eve L. Ewing ; "Dear P" / Victoria Chang ; "Lines for little Mila" / Norman Dubie ; "Mercy" / Patrick Phillups ; "Apparition" / Mark Doty ; "At Pegasus" / Terrance Hayes ; "Scorch marks" / Dara Wier ; "Dog talk" / Robin Coste Lewis ; "Romanticism 101" / Dean Young ; "for the last American buffalo" / Steve Scafidi
