50
Images of Little Compton, Rhode Island 52
It’s Not the Heat So Much as the Humidity 58
The Eagle Exterminating Company 60
The President Slumming 61
Failed Tribute to the Stonemason of Tor House, Robinson Jeffers 62
Conjuring Roethke 64
Dear Reader 65
III from Hints to Pilgrims (1971)
Recipe for Sleep 69
Brother of the Unknown Ancient Man 70
When the Nomads Come Over the Hill 71
Poem (A silence that tunnels forever) 72
I Take Back All My Kisses 73
Frivolous Blind Death Child 75
Alternatives 76
Amnesia People 79
Fuck the Astronauts 88
Lewis and Clark Overheard in Conversation 90
Contagion 93
Breathing 94
The Distant Orgasm 96
The Private Intrigue of Melancholy 99
A Guide to the Stone Age 100
Wait for Me 101
The Delicate Riders 102
If You Would Disappear at Sea 103
My Girl 104
Absences 105
South End 115
My Great Great Etc. Uncle Patrick Henry 116
Deaf Girl Playing 117
First Lesson 119
The Soup of Venus 120
The Immortals 121
Teaching the Ape to Write Poems 122
Man with Wooden Leg Escapes Prison 123
Saint John of the Cross in Prison 124
Cycle of Dust 125
V from Hottentot Ossuary (1974)
Waking 133
Deadlines 134
Leaping Woman 135
The Hostile Philharmonic Orchestra 136
Poem (I Can’t Speak for the Wind) 139
Sensitive Ears 140
A Voyage from Stockholm to Take Advantage of Lower Prices on the Finnish Island of Åland 141
Alfonso Lacklustre 142
Awkward Silence 144
A Radical Departure 145
Read the Great Poets 146
On the Subject of Doctors 148
Same Tits 149
Dry Cup 150
Village 104 151
Marfa 152
Amherst to Easthampton 154
The Glassy Harbor 155
“Dreamy Cars Graze on the Dewy Boulevard” 156
Bug Sleep 157
Autumn 158
Poem (Language was almost impossible) 159
In a Motel on Lake Erie 160
A Dime Found in the Snow 161
VII from Riven Doggeries (1979)
Riven Doggeries 165
Heatstroke 166
Rooster 168
Sloops in the Bay 169
With a Child All Day 170
Nature Poem: Demanding Stiff Sentences 171
Time X 172
The Shy One 173
The Life of Poetry 174
River’s Story 175
The Responsible Romance 176
Goodtime Jesus 177
In the Realm of the Ignition 178
VIII from Constant Defender (1983)
Land of Little Sticks, 1945 181
Poem for the Sandman 182
Five Years Old 183
The Horseshoe 184
The Wild Cheese 185
Nobody’s Business 186
Tell Them Was Here 188
Spring Was Begging to Be Born 189
Mystic Moment 191
Yonder 192
Summer Night 194
Nausea, Coincidence 196
Blue Spill 197
Yellow Newspaper and a Wooden Leg 198
Constant Defender 199
The Motorcyclists 200
Memo to the Dark Angel 201
If It Would All Please Hurry 202
Interruptions 205