Sturgeon's Law

I wish I had the energy to pick out the poems I like from every journal I read, but no. Instead, I thought I'd occasionally read an anthology and pick out the poems I liked from that.

Today, just in time for the selection of the Best New Poets 2006 anthology, I have the results from the Best New Poets 2005 anthology. In a big picture sense, I'll just say that it's definitely better than the typical Best American Poetry, not that that's saying much. What follows are the poems I liked, with the ones I definitely would have accepted had they been sent to The Eleventh Muse marked in italics (some of the others I'd probably have accepted too). Poets I have either accepted for the Muse in the past or whom I know as more than just a name (and who are thus exempt from the previous question) will be marked in bold.

"Reincarnation," Ellen Wehle
"Lepidopteraphile," Gary Joseph Cohen
"One Crow, a Killing," Temple Cone
"Bozo Sapphics," Cody Walker
"In the Details," Laurie Stoll
"Another Poem about Memphis Rocking," Beth Bachmann
"To a Young Woman in a Hospital Bed," Brian Brodeur
"Little Red Riding Hood Missed the Bus," Kristin Abraham
"Personals," Joanna Pearson
"Mom Poem," Diane Kirsten Martin
"Too Steep to Climb," Andrew Kozma
"The Fly," Paula Bohince
"When the Rider is Truth," Carrie Jerrell
"Ceremony," Damon McLaughlin
"Honor Amongst Thieves," Michael Meinhardt
"On Poetics," Steve Mueske
"After Miscarriage," Sandra Beasley
"The Fresco Worker Appears Suddenly in the Picture," Matthew Hittinger
"Self-Portrait as Angler's Damselfly," Cecily Parks
"Scissors," Clay Matthews
"Distal," Carol Ann Davis
"The Moon Speaks of Alzheimer's," Hailey Leithauser

So that's 22 of 50 I like enough to recommend--a very nice ratio, I think. Only 4 of 46 eligible that I definitely would have liked to publish, but that's not bad, and several of the others likely would have been in, though it would have taken more thought. More about this anthology if I come up with it.