Earth Again

Notes

notes The title of this collection,“Earth Again,” is taken from a section title in Czeslaw Milosz’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” “Vespers Beginning as Sheep Tallow in the Hands of a Priest” borrows “the casual horror of the iron” from George Oppen. “Comes to Worse” lifts “my major foray into this welter of self-pity” from Thomas McGuane. The bedtime story the father’s voice refers to late in the poem is My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett. “February Sidereal with Backyard Doe” reconstructs a phrase by Bei Dao. “May”: The opening sentence is from Richard Hugo. “Wintering”: The italicized phrase is from Elizabeth Bishop’s “At the Fishhouses.” “Trimmings” borrows “the black muscle” from Denis Johnson and “the house of an instant of seeing” from Czeslaw Milosz.  “Tablet” is for Jeffrey Foucault. “Brief Dream of Bronwyn Rae” is for John Roberts. 80 “They Tied the Madmen to Trees beside the River and All the Shrinks Went Out of Business” is for Christopher Howell. “Partial Eclipse / N 46.677 W 114.244” is for Laurie Ashley and dedicated to the memory of Chris Spurgeon. “Study for Acrylic of Sleeman Peak Dusk with Wildflowers” is for Phil and Julie Gardner. ...