Lehman's Forward
Although Lehman would later use his forwards as a kind of "state of poetry" review of the previous year, in this first volume he concentrated on the nature of this anthology, with most of the forward given over to explaining the mechanics of the process (see The Best American Poetry series for those comments).
There seem to be plenty of creative writing programs, so it appears there will be an audience for the series, Lehman wrote, and with poetry appearing in so many different publications, an annual anthology could help readers find poetry in one place.
Read more about this topic: The Best American Poetry 1988
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—Ernest Lehman (b. 1920)