[section 1].; From The apple that astonished Paris (1988) --; Another reason why I don't keep a gun in the house --; Walking across the Atlantic --; Plight of the troubadour --; The lesson --; Winter syntax --; Advice to writers --; The rival poet --; Insomnia --; Earthling --; Books --; Bar time --; My number --; Introduction to poetry --; The Brooklyn Museum of Art --; Schoolsville --; [section 2].; From Questions about angels (1991) --; American sonnet --; Questions about angels --; A history of weather --; The death of allegory --; Forgetfulness --; Candle hat --; Student of clouds --; The dead --; The man in the moon --; The wires of the night --; Vade mecum --; Not touching --; The history teacher --; First reader --; Purity --; Nostalgia --; [section 3].; From The art of drowning (1995) --; Consolation --; Osso Buco --; Directions --; Sunday morning with the sensational nightingales --; The best cigarette --; Days --; Tuesday, June 4, 1991 --; Canada --; On turning ten --; Workshop --; My heart --; Budapest --; Dancing toward Bethlehem --; Monday morning --; Center --; Design --; Pinup --; Piano lessons --; The blues --; Man in space --; Nightclub --; Some final words --; [section 4].; From Picnic, lightning (1998) --; Fishing on the Susquehanna in July --; To a stranger born in some distant country hundreds of years from now --; I chop some parsley while listening to Art Blakey's version of "Three blind mice" --; Afternoon with Irish cows --; Marginalia --; Some days --; Picnic, lightning --; Morning --; Bonsai --; Shoveling snow with Buddha --; Snow --; Japan --; Victoria's secret --; Lines composed over three thousand miles from Tintern Abbey --; Paradelle for Susan --; Lines lost among trees --; Taking off Emily Dickinson's clothes --; The night house --; Splitting wood --; The death of the hat --; Passengers --; Where I live --; Aristotle --; [section 5].; New poems --; Dharma --; Reading an anthology of Chinese poems of the Sung Dynasty, I pause to admire the length and clarity of their titles --; Snow day --; Insomnia --; Madmen --; Sonnet --; Idiomatic --; The waitress --; The butterfly effect --; Serenade --; The three wishes --; Pavilion --; The movies --; Jealousy --; Tomes --; Man listening to disc --; Scotland --; November --; The iron bridge --; The flight of the reader.