Table of Contents
Introduction xi
Section 1 Messages
To Manage 1
Aurora Borealis 2
Propriety 4
Big Bend National Park Says No to All Walls 5
Time's Low Note 7
Bully 9
Invocation 11
Bamboo Mind 12
Cross the Sea 13
To Babies 15
Songbook 16
Unsung-on Finding 17
Bundle 18
Little Lady, Little Nugget Brooms 20
Welcome What Comes 22
What Happens Next 24
Everything Changes the World 26
Standing Back 27
Three Hundred Goats 28
Lost People 29
Broken 31
Twilight 32
Section II Voices in the Air
For Aziz 37
Sheep by the Sea, a painting by Rosa Bonheur (1865) 39
Emily 40
Warbler Woods 41
Gratitude Pillow 43
Life Loves 45
Getting Over It 47
Conversation with Grace Paley, Flight of the Mind Writing Workshop, Oregon 50
Showing Up 51
For Caroline M. 53
Tomorrow 56
After Listening to Paul Durcan, Ireland 59
We Will Get Lost in You 61
James Tate in Jerusalem 63
Train Across Texas 65
Longfellow's Bed 67
Walt Whitman's Revisions 68
"Rest and Be Kind, You Don't Have to Prove Anything" 70
Peace Pilgrim's Pocket 74
C. D. Stepped Out 76
True Success 78
Woven by Air, Texture of Air 80
Tell Us All the Gossip You Know 81
Every Day 88
One State 90
My Name Is … 91
Invitation to the NSA 93
Double Peace 94
Break the Worry Cocoon 96
The Tent 98
Please Sit Down 100
For the Birds 102
Bowing Candles 103
Black Car 105
Section III More Worlds
Mountains 109
Oh, Say Can You See 111
Anti-Inaugural 113
I Vote for You 116
Belfast 118
Summer 120
A Lonely Cup of Coffee 121
Reading Obituaries on the Day of the Giant Moon 122
To Jamyla Bolden of Ferguson, Missouri 124
Your Answering Machine, After Your Death 126
Ring 127
Hummingbird 129
Next Time Ask More Questions 131
In Transit 132
Zen Boy 133
Where Do Poets Find Images? 134
Cell Phone Tower Disguised as a Tree 136
Before I Was a Gazan 138
Morning Ablution 139
What Do Palestinians Want? 140
Arabs in Finland 142
Ladders in Repose 143
The Gift 144
Voodoo Spoons 145
Barbershop 147
Getaway Car, United States, 2017 149
"Little Brother Shot Playing with Pistol" 151
Moment of Relief 152
Unbelievable Things 153
Airport Life 160
Texas, Out Driving 162
Missing the Boat, Take Two 163
All We Will Not Know 164
Loving Working 165
Stars Over Big Bend 166
United 167
Reserved for Poets 169
Her Father Still Watching 170
Small Basket of Happiness 171
Biographical Notes 173
Index of First Lines 187
Acknowledgments