The Best American Poetry 1991, a volume in The Best American Poetry series, was edited by David Lehman and by guest editor Mark Strand.
| Poet | Poem | Where poem previously appeared |
| "The Voice from Paxos" | The New York Review of Books | |
| "Evidence: From a Reporter's Notebook" | Pequod | |
| "Talking with Poets" | The Hudson Review | |
| "Bookmaking" | Green Mountains Review | |
| "Cigarettes" | Mudfish | |
| "Of Dreams and Dreaming" | Grand Street | |
| "Great Stone Face" | Partisan Review | |
| "In Memory of My Father: Australia" | The New Yorker | |
| "Double Sonnet for Mickey" | Temblor | |
| "A Whippoorwill in the Woods" | Boulevard | |
| "Blue Lonely Dreams" | The Paris Review | |
| "Infernal Regions and the Invisible Girl" | Poetry | |
| "Desire" | Antaeus | |
| "Bringing It Down" | The Georgia Review | |
| "The Recording Angel" | Antaeus | |
| "The Fractal Lanes" | The Yale Review | |
| "Celestial Music" | New Letters | |
| "The Phase After History" | The Paris Review | |
| "The Consolation of Boethius" | The Paris Review | |
| "The Afterlife" | The New Yorker | |
| "Safe" | The Atlantic Monthly | |
| "The Ether Dome (An Entertainment)" | Western Humanities Review | |
| "The Beautician" | Ploughshares | |
| "Tubes" | Boulevard | |
| "Garden" | The Atlantic Monthly | |
| "Who We Are" | Grand Street | |
| "The See-Saw" | The New Republic | |
| "Desire" | o•blék | |
| "Second Nature" | The New Yorker | |
| "What Word Did the Greeks Have for It?" | The Threepenny Review | |
| "The Woods" | Ploughshares | |
| "Body and Soul" | Antaeus | |
| "Elegy" | The New Yorker | |
| "A Flower for the New Year" | o•blék | |
| "Let Evening Come" | Harvard Magazine | |
| "The Diva's First Song (White's Hotel, London)" | Partisan Review | |
| "Marriage Song" | Antaeus | |
| "A Time Zone" | The Paris Review | |
| "Morning in America" | American Poetry Review | |
| "Work Song" | The New Yorker | |
| "Dark Songs: Slave House and Synagogue" | Pequod | |
| "At the Classics Teacher's" | The New Yorker | |
| "An Essay on Friendship" | Poetry | |
| "Smash and Scatteration" | New American Writing | |
| "The 'Ring' Cycle" | The New Yorker | |
| "Sky of Clouds" | Provincetown Arts | |
| "Benedick's Complaints: Ado About Nothing" | Western Humanities Review | |
| "Protracted Episode" | Southwest Review | |
| "Lunchcounter Freedom" | Gargoyle (magazine) | |
| "Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, 1942" | The Yale Review | |
| "Chronic Meanings" | Temblor | |
| "Evidence" | Pequod | |
| "Night Subway" | The New Republic | |
| "Into the Open" | The New Yorker | |
| "The New Reforms" | Sites | |
| "Two Poems" | The New Yorker | |
| "Leaves" | The New Republic | |
| "Past Lives" | Ploughshares | |
| "The Seasons" | American Poetry Review | |
| "Living Color" | Ploughshares | |
| "Country Fair" | The New Yorker | |
| "The Wound" | Boulevard | |
| "The Woman as Figure" | New American Writing | |
| "The Haiku Master" | The New Criterion | |
| "Merlin" | Antaeus | |
| "For Seven Women" | Boulevard | |
| "War Movie: Last Leave, 1944" | Ploughshares | |
| "I Am a Finn" | The Iowa Review | |
| "Reminiscence Forward" | Fine Madness | |
| "Reruns" | Brooklyn Review | |
| "Revenge" | Antaeus | |
| "Omeros" | Partisan Review | |
| "Song" | The Atlantic Monthly | |
| "Lasting Influence" | The Paris Review | |
| "Reading Lao Tzu Again in the New Year" | Poetry | |
Only one poem per poet is represented in any regular volume in the series, but some publications are represented multiple times among the 75 poems picked by the guest editor (Mark Strand, this year).
In order of frequency, these are the publications most represented this year:
| The New Yorker | 10 | |
| Antaeus | 6 | |
| Paris Review | 5 | |
| Ploughshares | 5 | |
| Boulevard | 4 | |
| The Atlantic Monthly | 3 | |
| The New Republic | 3 | |
| Poetry | 3 | |
| Pequod | 3 | |
| American Poetry Review | 2 | |
| Grand Street | 2 | |
| New American Writing | 2 | |
| O.blek | 2 | |
| Partisan Review | 2 | |
| The Yale Review | 2 | |
| Western Humanities Review | 2 |