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summary
A Life Above Water is a cycle of poems that examines both the natural and human worlds and explores the boundaries between the two. The manuscript is concerned with personal ecologies and mythologies—the ways that things are interconnected and the stories that we create to explain those connections. The manuscript is arranged in three concentric sections, each subsequent division nesting within the previous one. The reader is drawn into the broad, inclusive view of “All These Indigestible Parts” with its focus on the animals of the forest and birds of the air, the apparent cruelty of the natural world and that which is human about the animal—through “Fellowship and Baked Goods” which looks at peopled communities and the ways we interact with one another, to the tighter, more personal focus of “The Great Slowing” and its themes of loss, shortcoming and redemption. The poems are individually free-standing and complete, but taken as a whole form a broad yet detailed portrait of the world around us and our place within it. By turns analytical, scientific, lyrical, whimsical and spiritual, A Life Above Water is a book that fits neatly into the canon of contemporary poetry while offering a unique, fresh and accessible perspective.

Table of Contents

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  1. Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Acknowledgments
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  1. Contents
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  1. All These Indigestible Parts
  2. p. 11
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  1. Keeper
  2. p. 13
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  1. Pipistrelle
  2. p. 14
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  1. Knapp’s Creek
  2. p. 15
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  1. Chipmunk
  2. p. 16
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  1. Knapp’s Creek: A Drought Sonnet
  2. p. 17
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  1. Homage to Hayden Carruth
  2. p. 18
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  1. Owl Pellet
  2. p. 19
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  1. The Field
  2. pp. 20-22
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  1. Hematite
  2. p. 23
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  1. The Trees Respond to Winter
  2. pp. 24-26
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  1. Caraway
  2. p. 27
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  1. The Insect Bible
  2. p. 28
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  1. Fathom
  2. p. 29
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  1. Ars Poetica: New Years Day, 2000
  2. p. 30
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  1. Fellowship and Baked Goods
  2. p. 31
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  1. Unsolicited Advice
  2. p. 33
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  1. A Beautiful Jar of Jelly
  2. pp. 34-35
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  1. Perfect Mason
  2. pp. 36-37
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  1. Farmstead: Back Mountain Road
  2. p. 38
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  1. Cakewalk at the Walker’s Creek Firehall
  2. pp. 39-40
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  1. Homage to Charles Wright
  2. pp. 41-43
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  1. Gerard David, The Judgment of Cambyses, 1498.
  2. pp. 44-45
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  1. Refugees
  2. pp. 46-47
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  1. February 23–Portland, Michigan
  2. p. 48
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  1. The Century Plant
  2. p. 49
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  1. Las Palomas
  2. pp. 50-51
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  1. Teaching Eighth Grade Math
  2. pp. 52-53
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  1. The Way It Is
  2. pp. 54-55
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  1. The Great Slowing
  2. p. 57
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  1. Some Lessons in Poverty
  2. p. 59
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  1. Blackberry
  2. p. 60
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  1. Homunculus
  2. p. 61
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  1. Earshot
  2. pp. 62-63
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  1. The Portrait of My Great-Grandfather—Christmas 1986
  2. p. 64
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  1. Oneiromancy
  2. p. 65
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  1. The Party
  2. p. 66
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  1. Sleeping Scotland
  2. p. 67
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  1. Homage to Charles Simic
  2. p. 68
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  1. The Fossil Record
  2. p. 69
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  1. The Experimental Bowler
  2. p. 70
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  1. The Haiku Moment
  2. p. 71
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  1. The Great Slowing
  2. pp. 72-73
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  1. Photographing the Dead
  2. p. 74
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  1. Martins Ferry
  2. p. 75
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  1. A Meditation on Surrender
  2. p. 76
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  1. Notes
  2. p. 77
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  1. Biographical Note
  2. p. 79
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