Editors’ Note:

If, at the turn of the 22nd century, there is still such a thing as an anthology. If readers of poetry continue to entertain the sometimes troublesome idea that ten or twenty poems can reflect whole movements, schools, trends. If the looking-back literati—skeptical of Automaticism, 2101’s prevailing poetic tendency—seek some sense of our long-gone zeitgeist . . . If all that. Then what poems will be read as representative of the early 21st century? Say, from 2001 to 2018?

We asked some of our collaborators to take their best guess.

We suggested that, first, they consider poems that are great own their own—devastating, voicy, gut-busting. But, second, we wanted to hear about poems that address the Big Issues—or what might be remembered as the Big Issues—of our day.

Adrienne Su, Emily Mohn-Slate, Anders Carlson-Wee, Tony Hoagland, Chiyuma Elliott, Keith Kopka, Veronica Schuder, and Mario Chard took up the challenge. Here are their choices:

                                        “The Woman in the Moon,” by Carol Ann Duffy • “The Kind of Man
                                        I Am at the DMV,” by Stacey Waite • “Among the Prophets” and
                                        “Breakers, before the Feds shut it down,” by Essy Stone • “Statue
                                        of Liberty,” by Ann Killough • “Since You Ask,” by Carl Phillips •
                                        “Epithalamion Ex Post Facto” by Joshua Bell • “A Small Gesture of
                                        Gratitude,” by Mark Bibbins • “Another Poem on Blue,” by Claire
                                        Bateman • “Love at Thirty-Two Degrees,” by Katherine Larson •
                                        “Look,” by Solmaz Sharif

These are poems, to borrow from Mario Chard’s title, that see the present deeply. They’re some of the Gems of the 21st.

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