Introduction / Bill Henderson -- The cavemen in the hedges / Stacey Richter -- Narrow road to the deep north / Gary Amdahl -- Gratitude / Robert Cording -- About Tere who was in Palomas / Dagoberto Gilb -- Tomorrow's bird / Ian Frazier -- At horticulture park / Marianne Boruch -- Returning to Providence / David Plante -- Suitcase song / Albert Goldbarth -- An official reply / Ha Jim -- Grief / Pamela Painter -- My night with Philip Larkin / Rachel Loden -- The ashes of August / Kim Barnes -- Inventory / Eamon Grennan -- Semper paratus / Alyson Hagy -- Kinds of sleep / Kevin Prufer -- The secrets of bats / Jess Row -- A short history of the shadow / Charles Wright -- Hippies / Denis Johnson -- Creeley cursing in church / Rick Campbell -- The big-breasted pilgrim / Ann Beattie -- Three crows / Carol Potter -- The bad seed : a guide / Nicola Mason -- Beetles / Steve Kowit -- Khwaja Khadir / David James Duncan -- It is hard not to love the world / Jim Moore -- The mourning door / Elizabeth Graver -- In transit / John Hollander -- O lost / Thomas Wolfe -- The turning / Jeannette Barnes -- Reflections of an uncertain Jew / André Aciman -- The poet's voice / Michael S. Harper -- Melba Kuperschmid returns / Peter M. Orner -- Memory / Anthony Hecht -- Alcyone / Talvikki Ansel -- The fireman / Rick Bass -- Bike ride with older boys / Laura Kasischke.

Self and attributes / Susan Wheeler -- The thief of Tay Ninh / Kevin Bowen -- Limen / Natasha Trethewey -- Labor / Madison Smartt Bell -- Splinter / Jeff Dolven -- Bit-o-honey / Bernard Cooper -- The story of the door / David Huddle -- By a swimming pool outside Syracusa / Billy Collins -- Death as a fictitious event / Bert O. States -- Going / Daniel Hoffman -- Part of the story / Stephen Dobyns -- Pain thinks of the beautiful table / Laurie Lamon -- The price of eggs in China / Don Lee -- Memoir / Louise Glück -- Seven types of ambiguity / Dan Chaon -- I am Mrs. Lorca / Rafael Campo -- Beethoven, Monet, technology and us / Burton Raffel -- Yellow fever / Barbara Hamby -- Grafting / Mariko Nagai -- Recitation / Scott Cairns -- A little learning / Sharon Dilworth -- Archaeology / Margaret Gibson -- Blood sport / Thomas Lynch -- In praise of coldness / Jane Hirshfield -- Things not seen in a rear-view mirror / Debra Marquart -- The palace at 4:00 A.M. / Debora Greger -- Miles / Richard Burgin -- Inheritance / Kwame Dawes -- The names / Carole Maso -- Her garden / Donald Hall -- Funktionslust / Melissa Pritchard -- To the tune of a small, repeatable, and passing kindness / Carl Phillips -- The moor / Russell Banks -- The children of this land / Wole Soyinka -- Fugue / Elizabeth Alexander.