The best American poetry, 2006 / Billy Collins, editor ; David Lehman, series editor.

Includes bibliographical references.

Verities / Kim Addonizio -- See the pyramids along the Nile / Dick Allen -- from: Couple from Hell / Craig Arnold -- A worldly country / John Ashbery -- Speech in a chamber / Jesse Ball -- Letter from my ancestors / Krista Benjamin -- You must have been a beautiful baby / Ilya Bernstein -- Apologies to the blue tit / Gaylord Brewer -- Rhetorical figures / Tom Christopher -- Sestina for the newly married / Laura Cronk -- Our generation / Carl Dennis -- Toward some bright moment / Stephen Dobyns -- Please don't sit like a frog, sit like a queen / Denise Duhamel -- The land of Is / Stephen Dunn -- Souvenir / Beth Ann Fennelly -- List of first lines / Megan Gannon -- For my niece Sidney, age six / Amy Gerstler -- Bust of a young boy in the snow / Sarah Gorham -- The death of Winckelmann / George Green -- My first mermaid / Debora Greger -- The curve / Eamon Grennan -- Monsieur Pierre est mort / Daniel Gutstein -- from: Sects from A to Z / R.S. Gwynn -- Bird, weasel, fountain / Rachel Hadas -- Refusal to notice beautiful women / Mark Halliday -- On the way to the doctor's / Jim Harrison -- The problem of describing color / Robert Hass -- Hour / Christian Hawkey -- Talk / Terrance Hayes -- My career as a director / Bob Hicok -- The ferry / Katia Kapovich -- At Gettysburg / Laura Kasischke -- Just a second ago / Joy Katz -- Seventeen ways from Tuesday / David Kirby -- The laws of probability in Levittown / Jennifer L. Knox -- Found / Ron Koertge -- Sally's hair / John Koethe -- Tonight / Mark Kraushaar -- Double abecedarian : please give me / Julie Larios -- Demographic / Dorianne Laux -- That's not butter / Reb Livingston -- Eyes scooped out and replaced by hot coals / Thomas Lux -- Blenheim / Paul Muldoon -- Albert Hinckley / Marilyn Nelson -- Briefcase of sorrow / Richard Newman -- The poet with his face in his hands / Mary Oliver -- Small town rocker / Danielle Pafunda -- The sharper the berry / Mark Pawlak -- Race / Bao Phi -- Two poets meet / Donald Platt -- The great poem / Lawrence Raab -- Roadside special / Betsy Retallack -- The other woman's point of view / Liz Rosenberg -- Discounting Lynn / J. Allyn Rosser -- Thin / Kay Ryan -- A phone call to the future / Mary Jo Salter -- Memoir / Vijay Seshadri -- Misjudged fly ball / Alan Shapiro -- House of cards / Charles Simic -- Homesick / Gerald Stern -- The loser / James Tate -- Body English / Sue Ellen Thompson -- Misprision / Tony Towle -- What I never told you about the abortion / Alison Townsend -- Counterman / Paul Violi -- Harvesting the cows / Ellen Bryant Voigt -- The driver / David Wagoner -- Prayer to tear the sperm-dam down / Charles Harper Webb -- Ponies / C.K. Williams -- Sex elegy / Terence Winch -- Gratification / Susan Wood -- A happy thought / Franz Wright -- Religion / Robert Wrigley -- The call / David Yezzi -- Clam ode / Dean Young.