Includes bibliographical references and index.

Oh Lana Turner we love you get up : TV, movies, music, cars, cartoons, poetry and popular culture -- Frank O'Hara -- Charles Bernstein -- Lucille Clifton -- John Ashbery -- James Tate -- Alan Shapiro -- Freeman Rogers -- Adrian Matejka -- Lawrence Raab -- Aimee Nezhukumatathil -- Charles Harper Webb -- Bruce A. Jacobs -- Tony Hoagland -- Adrian Blevins -- Josh Bell -- Lucia Perillo -- I was alone when it hit me : the self -- Kenneth Koch -- Marilyn Chin -- Kevin Young -- Mark Halliday -- Bill Zavatsky -- Beth Ann Fennelly -- Michael Ryan -- Robert Hass -- Andrew Hudgins -- Jynne Dilling Martin -- Gerald Stern -- Ray A. Young Bear -- Ron Koertge -- James Tate -- Stephen Dobyns -- My old reptile : close encounters of the sexual kind -- John Berryman -- Charles Simic -- Martha Silano -- Gary Soto -- Denise Duhamel -- David Bottoms -- Maxine Chernoff -- Heather McHugh -- Stephen Dobyns -- Richard Newman -- Mark Halliday -- Thomas Lux -- Tim Seibles -- Nin Andrews -- Kim Addonizio -- Stephen Dobyns -- Jason Bredle -- The heart is a lonely perineum : love, marriage, divorce, and hatred -- Gregory Corso -- Denise Duhamel -- David Lehman -- Stephen Dunn -- Angelo Verga -- Louise Glück -- George Bilgere -- Catherine Bowman -- Harryette Mullen -- Charles Simic -- William Logan -- Kenneth Koch -- Geoffrey Brock -- Daniel Borzutsky -- Yusef Komunyakaa -- Phyllis Moore -- Mothers of America let your kids go to the movies : family life and strife -- Frank O'Hara -- Billy Collins -- Tony Hoagland -- Campbell McGrath -- Jeffrey Harrison -- Lois-Ann Yamanaka -- Ginger Andrews -- Gary Soto -- Lynne McMahon -- Richard García -- Honorée Fanonne Jeffers -- Thomas Lux -- Mark Halliday -- James Kimbrell -- Let us be friends a while and understand our differences : fiends and neighbors -- Frank O'Hara -- James Tate -- Steve Scafidi -- Caroline Knox -- David Kirby -- Andrew Hudgins -- R.S. Gwynn -- Aimee Nezhukumatathil -- Albert Goldbarth -- B.H. Fairchild -- Peter Meinke -- Carl Dennis -- Dean Young -- Mark Halliday -- Julie Sheehan -- Tony Hoagland -- Carl Dennis -- William Matthews --

It occurs to me I am America : wrestling with a huge rococco national identity -- Allen Ginsberg -- Natalie Shapero -- Gregory Djanikian -- Kevin McFadden -- Richard Blanco -- Martín Espada -- Barbara Hamby -- James Allen Hall -- Tony Hoagland -- Christopher Bursk -- Terrance Hayes -- Martín Espada -- Dean Young -- Matthew Zapruder -- Billy Collins -- From my bowels to your inbox : poetry goes to work -- Richard García -- Justin Courter -- Enid Shomer -- Richard Newman -- Erin Belieu -- Jim Daniels -- Ron Koertge -- Judith Ortiz Cofer -- Adrian Blevins -- David Huerta -- Charles Simic -- John Ashbery -- We who love precise language : poems about writing and literature -- Franz Wright -- John Berryman -- Dean Young -- Paul Violi -- Sharon Olds -- Caroline Knox -- R.S. Gwynn -- Lawrence Raab -- Harryette Mullen -- Maura Stanton -- Stephen Dunn -- Justin Courter -- Billy Collins -- Stephen Dunn -- Jeffrey Harrison -- J. Allyn Rosser -- David Kirby -- Tony Hoagland -- Galway Kinnell -- The power of weirdness : talking dogs, chickens, horses, ducks, bugs, and other entanglements both human and un- -- Albert Goldbarth -- Stephen Dobyns -- Richard García -- William Matthews -- Stephen Dunn -- David Graham -- Bob Kicok -- John Ashbery -- Barbara Hamby -- Robert Wrigley -- Billy Collins -- Jennifer L. Knox -- James Tate -- Paul Guest -- Mockery was still the unforgivable sin : religion and other metaphysical meanderings -- Aidan Rooney -- James Tate -- Nin Andrews -- Michael Collier -- Lucia Perillo -- David Lehman -- Carl Dennis -- Richard Cecil -- Rodney Jones -- Barbara Hamby -- Wanda Coleman -- Dorothy Barresi -- Richard Howard -- T.R. Hummer -- Albert Goldbarth -- Kevin Young -- Everything prophesied will erupt : the end of the world -- Susan Wood -- Steve Fellner -- Christopher Bursk -- Stephen Dunn -- Dean Young -- David Clewell -- Adrian Blevins -- Kevin McFadden -- David Clewell -- David Kirby -- Jason Bredle.