This collection brings together for the first time three generations of poets associated with New Mexico, representing a variety of styles and personalities. The first group -- beginning with the distinguished East Coast emigre to Santa Fe Witter Bynner and ending with the New Mexico-born MacArthur fellow Jay Wright -- came into their maturities by the 1960s. This era's distinguished roster includes such figures as Charles Tomlinson, Robert Creeley, Nathaniel Tarn, and Simon Ortiz. The second group, including nationally known figures like Joy Harjo, Jimmy Santiago Baca, N Scott Momaday, and Arthur Sze, became famous in the 1970s and 1980s. The third group, dating mostly to the 1990s, includes some writers familiar only to audiences who frequent coffee houses and poetry slams, as well as authors whose names are familiar both nationally and regionally, among them Demetria Martinez and Kate Horsley.