Table of Contents
The Function of Poetry xvii
1
Walking My Seventy-Five-Year-Old Dog 3
Contemporary Americans 5
Paris in May 6
And It's Raining Outside, Which Always Adds 8
Life Expectancy 10
Sleeping on My Side 12
The Floors of Bonnard 13
Down on the Farm 14
Imperial Garden 16
Mice 18
Prospect 20
Evening Wind 22
Whiskers 24
Walking Under the Trees 25
Whale Day 26
2
The Wild Barnacle 31
Objectivity 34
Banana School 36
Identity 38
Arizona 40
Irish Spider 41
Listening to Hank Mobley Around 11 O'Clock 42
After a Long Fun Boozy Dinner, the Four of Us, at Captain Pig's, Our Favorite Restaurant in Town The Card Players 43
Vivace! 45
A Terrible Beauty 47
Duck Blind 49
She's Gone 50
Downpour 52
3
Safe Travels 57
Hawaii 59
The Emperor of Ice Cubes 61
I Am Not Italian 63
The Symphony Orchestra of San Miguel de Allende 64
Dublin 66
Cremation 68
Lakeside Cottage: Ontario 70
The Convergence of My Parents 72
Dreaming of the Middle Ages 74
The Yellow Wood 77
My Funeral 78
The Pregnant Man 80
Architecture at 3.-30 AM. 81
The Garland 83
4
Me First 87
A Sight 88
Air Sax 89
English Roses 90
On the Deaths of Friends 91
Cupid 93
Talking to Myself 94
Ireland Floating on a Map of the World 96
The Flash Card 97
Anniversary 99
Early People 101
My Father's Office, John Street, New York City, 1953 103
April 21st 106
Massage 108
Hotel Rex 110
Going for a Walk as the Drugs Kick In 111
Acknowledgments 113