EARLY MORNINGS
It was country so flat...

MOON ROAD
Starting out along the beat-up asphalt...

BUSRIDE
We are rolling. Snow and stubble...

GOING HOME LATE
It's late and the clock downtown...

YOU KNOW
You know who...

LATE OCTOBER
I am rain-tranced, fed with sleep....

URIA BYLER'S ELEGY FOR PALMER LEHMAN
Palmer Lehman has been gone for quite a few years....

A GAME
Well worn, stinking...

FOOT-WASHING
. . . having loved his own which were in the world...

EAST ON 46
Fog spiders out its net...

MEMORIAL DAY: DIGGING THE GARDEN
Just less than spade deep...

R.T.
went out of...

ON THE ISLAND
This guy drinks a lot and rides his legs...

THOSE COWS: THEIR DOUBLE LIFE
They come ambling around the shagbark stand...

HERBAL
Call it Cleavers, Jupiter's Nut...

BUZZARD
Ten turns above the woods...

FLYING WITH THE CROWS
Enter March. Wind scants...

HERONS STAND
Herons stand on stick legs...

CONFUSION
Those horses have necks...

TO TURTLE
The round house and the...

MY ANCESTORS
My ancestors abound within me...

ATLEE MULLET'S EXPERIENCE
I too had an experience ...

THE TEMPTATION
The tree was hollow and I...

TEETH
Blank white. My coat is full of wind....

WHOSE MOON
What about that bird...

A NEW WORLD
Waking up, I see it's all different....

FLAT LAND
At the edge of the world, the sun burns....

GNAW
I may have made a mistake here...

Dear Eric,

Pick up your socks. Clean the house once in a while. Go to the 
dentist. Start being more sensible about money. If you're going 
to read, make sure it's a book that amounts to something.
	
In general, you mistake lethargy for stability. Your strong 
reaction to discipline is a remarkable point of view. It has 
inevitable and regrettable consequences. A restless mind is not 
necessarily an energetic one.
	
"Today's poetry is a fight for breath." Remember that? Then what 
have you done with the knowledge? There are no easy ways. 
Sentimentality will not do in the place of emotion. Confusion 
is not profundity.
	
Reform your heart. Withdrawal is not the same as solitude. A 
secret held from all others is a stone in the gut. Oysters 
make pearls of such irritants, humans do not. How can there be 
pleasure in isolation?
	
Do you ever vacuum?

A Critic