A micro-anthology of Twentieth Century American poems

1. The Painter, John Ashbery, 'the sea devoured the canvas and the brush/As though his subject had decided to remain a prayer.'

2. Argo, Richard Hugo, 'Perhaps the dead/Trade places underground.'

3. When death comes, Mary Oliver,'I don't want to end up simply having visited this world'

4. Tear it down, Jack Gilbert, 'We must unlearn the constellations to see the stars.'

5. Love calls us to the things of this world, Richard Wilbur, (audio), 'Let there be clean linen for the backs of thieves'

6. The Colonel, Carolyn Forché, 'What you have heard is true. I was in his house.'

7. Filling Station, Elizabeth Bishop, 'Why the extraneous plant?/Why the taboret?/Why, oh why, the doily?'

8. Sonnet 2, The Broken Home, James Merrill, 'But the race was run below, and the point was to win.'

9. What lips these lips have kissed, Edna St. Vincent Milay, 'the rain/Is full of ghosts tonight.'

10. Dream song 14, John Berryman, 'I conclude now I have no/inner resources, because I am heavy bored.'

11. Place, W.S. Merwin, 'On the last day of the world/I would want to plant a tree'