Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Thank You for Saying You’re Welcome 1
4. In Utopia 18
5. High Tide at Race Point . 19
6. Don’t Tell Me about the Tide 21
7. Grief Haunts the Spoken 22
8. Nowhere Is Just around the Corner 23
9. S’i’ fosse 28
10. Corrections 29
11. Intaglio 30
12. The Bluebird of Happiness 31
13. Catachresis My Love 32
14. Spring 38
15. Otherwise He’d Be Dead 39
16. This Poem Is a Hostage 41
17. The Lie of Art 42
18. Why I Am Not a Hippie 45
19. Apoplexy / Apoplexie 46
20. Truly Unexceptional 56
21. Passing 58
22. All Poetry Is Loco 59
23. I Used to Be a Plastic Bottle 62
24. Why I Am Not an Atheist 66
25. The Island of Lost Song 67
26. Confederate Battle Flag 73
27. Sacred Hate 74
28. Me and My Pharaoh... 75
29. Catullus 70 84
30. He Said He Was a Professor 85
31. Klang 86
32. Autobiography of an Ex- 88
33. Why I Am Not a Buddhist 89
34. Ballad Laid Bare by Its Devices (Even) 90
35. Animation 98
36. Also Rises the Sun 99
37. Georgics 101
38. Concentration (An Elegy) 102
39. How I Became Prehuman 105
40. Pinky’s Rule 107
41. My Mommy Is Lost 116
42. Better Off Dead 117
43. Oopera 118
44. Procedure 119
45. Water Under the Bridge . . . 120
46. Recap 121
47. Unconstrained Writing 129
48. Ugly Duckling 131
49. Beyond Compare 132
50. The Pond Off Pamet Road 133
51. The Nun’s Story 134
52. Our United Fates 135
53. To Gonzalo Rojas 139
54. I Don’t Remember 140
55. Flag 141
56. Contact Western Union Very Urgent 145
57. Her Ecstasy Is Abstract 146
58. At Sunset, after the Plum Blossoms Begin to Fall . . . 148
59. Each Separate Dying Ember 149
60. Betcha 150
61. Don’t Say I Passed When I Die 151
62. Ring Song 152
63. God’s Silence 153
64. Drambuie 154
65. Doggone Sane 155
66. Fado 157
67. Wild Turning 158
68. This Poem Is a Decoy 159
69. My Luck 160
70. Mystic Brokerage 161
71. Effigy 165
72. Seldom Splendor 166
73. Song of the Wandering Poet 167
74. In the Meantime 168
75. Before Time 169
76. Song 170
77. What Makes a Poem a Poem? 171
78. There’s a Hole in My Pocket 172
79. Song Dynasty 173
80. Elfking 175
81. Lacrimae Rerum 177
82. Fare Thee Well 178
83. Notes and Acknowledgments 181