Death of a Ventriloquist

Contents

vii Contents Acknowledgments ix 1 Rider Unhorsed 3 On Leaving Home 4 Guide 5 The Largest of the Circus Animals 6 Oakland Work Crew 7 Worry Bone 8 Notes on Thirty Years in the Life of a Ventriloquist 9 The End of Reading 14 Learning to Wait 16 Inspiration 17 American Beech 19 Ventriloquist on an Off-Day 20 2 Panic Grass and Feverfew 23 Phaëton 24 Ventriloquist on the Moor 25 Still Life, Young Woman at the Water’s Edge 26 Park City Grille 27 A Brief History of the Decline 28 The Origin of Pigeons 32 One of the Dummies at Night 33 3 Explanation Beginning with a River 37 Maker 38 Wildflowers of North America 39 Self-Portrait as a Word Ending in E 40 viii Notes on Colic 41 How to Make Fatherhood Lyrical 44 Music in My Head 46 Death of a Ventriloquist 47 4 Proof #4 51 Visiting Chicago 52 Four Planes of Experience 53 Rattling Funicular 60 Caravaggio’s Peter 62 The Prayer of Glass 63 Disabused Sonnet 66 The Perhaps World 67 Pull 68 The Worst First Line 70 More Matter, Less Art 72 The Nots 73 Notes 75 ...