In this unique anthology, 65 prominent contemporary American poets present their poems, followed by personal statements explaining how a poem's form relates to its content. The poetic forms vary from modern free verse to such traditional structures as the sonnet, the sestina, and the villanelle. The poets' comments range from pithy, off-hand remarks on the gist of a poem to illuminating line-by-line exegeses. Contributors include a few big names such as John Ashbery, Richard Wilbur, Robert Creeley, and Robert Pinsky; a few best-known for their fiction such as Joyce Carol Oates and John Updike; and several less-published but skilled versifiers. ISBN 0-02-069840-2 (pbk.): $10.95.