- 1. At Pleasure Bay
In the willows along the river at Pleasure Bay
A catbird singing, never the same phrase twice.
Here under the pines a little off the road
In 1927 the Chief of Police
...
- 2. An Explanation Of America: A Love Of Death
Imagine a child from Virginia or New Hampshire
Alone on the prairie eighty years ago
Or more, one afternoonâ??the shaggy pelt
Of grasses, for the first time in that childâ??s life,
...
- 3. Doctor Frolic
Felicity the healer isnâ??t young
And you donâ??t look him up unless you need him.
Clownâ??s eyes, Popeâ??s nose, a mouth for dirty stories,
He made his bundle in the Great Depression
...
- 4. Impossible To Tell
to Robert Hass and in memory of Elliot Gilbert
Slow dulcimer, gavotte and bow, in autumn,
...
- 5. Ceremony For Any Beginning
Against weather, and the random
Harpiesâ??mood, circumstance, the laws
Of biography, chance, physicsâ??
The unseasonable soul holds forth,
...
- 6. The Refinery
". . . our language, forged in the dark bycenturies of violent
pressure, underground,out of the stuff of dead life."
Thirsty and languorous after their long black sleep
...
- 7. Essay On Psychiatrists
I. Invocation
Itâ??s crazy to think one could describe themâ??
Calling on reason, fantasy, memory, eves and earsâ??
...
