Traveling Light

by Wagoner, David

• ISBN13: 9780252068034
• ISBN10: 0252068033
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-06-01
• Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr

Summary

"David Wagoner has won the acclaim of his peers and been compared with some of the most gifted poets in the English language: Emily Dickinson, James Wright, Robert Frost, Theodore Roethke. TheAntioch Reviewhas ascribed to him a""profoundly earthbound sanity,"" whilePublishers Weeklycredits him with a ""plainspoken formal virtuosity"" and a ""consistent, pragmatic clarity of perception."" His collections have garneredPoetry'sLevinson and Union League Prizes, the Ruth Lilly Prize, and nominations for the American Book Award and the National Book Award. For his most recent collection,Walt Whitman Bathing, Wagoner was honored with the Ohioana Book Award in the category of poetry.Witty, eloquent, and insightful,Traveling Lightoffers new and familiar treasures from a master observer of both the natural and the human worlds. In a style by turns direct and intricate, Wagoner distills the essential emotions from people's encounters with each other, with nature, and with themselves. Through his compassionate but unblinking eyes, we see ourselves and the world that surrounds us more sharply delineated."

Author Biography

David Wagoner, a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and editor of Poetry Northwest, teaches at the University of Washington. In addition to many collections of poetry he has published ten novels, including The Escape Artist, which was made into a movie by Francis Ford Coppola.

Table of Contents

From Collected Poems, 1956--76
One
The Words	3	(1)
Staying Alive	4	(3)
Talking to the Forest	7	(1)
Talking to Barr Creek	8	(1)
Do Not Proceed Beyond This Point without a Guide	9	(1)
Lost	10	(1)
Sleeping in the Woods	11	(2)
Working against Time	13	(1)
One Ear to the Ground	14	(1)
Report from a Forest Logged by the Weyerhaeuser Company	15	(1)
Riverbed	16	(1)
Fire by the River	17	(1)
The Lesson	18	(2)
Standing Halfway Home	20	(1)
The Gathering of the Loons	21	(1)
An Offering for Dungeness Bay	22	(2)
A Guide to Dungeness Spit	24	(2)
The Osprey's Nest	26	(1)
Observations from the Outer Edge	27	(2)
The Other Side of the Mountain	29	(2)
Tumbleweed	31	(1)
Water Music for the Progress of Love in a Life Raft Down the Sammamish Slough	32	(2)
Leaving Something Behind	34	(1)
Clancy	35	(1)
Talking Back	36	(1)
Nine Charms against the Hunter	37	(1)
In the Open Season	38	(1)
Moving into the Garden	39	(1)
By the Orchard	40	(1)
The Fruit of the Tree	41	(1)
Snake Hunt	42	(1)
The Death and Resurrection of the Birds	43	(1)
The Singing Lesson	44	(14)
Sequence: Traveling Light
Breaking Camp	45	(1)
Meeting a Bear	46	(2)
Walking in a Swamp	48	(1)
Tracking	49	(1)
Missing the Trail	50	(1)
From Here to There	51	(2)
Being Shot	53	(2)
Waiting in a Rain Forest	55	(1)
Traveling Light	56	(2)
Two
After Consulting My Yellow Pages	58	(1)
The Labors of Thor	59	(3)
This Is a Wonderful Poem	62	(1)
The Shooting of John Dillinger Outside the Biograph Theater, July 22, 1934	63	(3)
The Burglar	66	(2)
The Holdup	68	(1)
The Visiting Hour	69	(2)
The Night of the Sad Women	71	(1)
At St. Vincent DePaul's	72	(1)
Bums at Breakfast	73	(1)
A Valedictory to Standard Oil of Indiana	74	(1)
A Touch of the Mother	75	(2)
Elegy for a Woman Who Remembered Everything	77	(1)
For a Man Who Died in His Sleep	78	(1)
Doors	79	(1)
Out for a Night	80	(1)
Closing Time	81	(1)
Free Passage	82	(1)
A Day in the City	83	(2)
The Apotheosis of the Garbagemen	85	(2)
To My Friend Whose Parachute Did Not Open	87	(1)
Speech from a Comedy	88	(2)
Come before His Countenance with a Joyful Leaping	90	(1)
Plainsong for Everyone Who Was Killed Yesterday	91	(2)
Three
Muse	93	(1)
Words above a Narrow Entrance	94	(1)
The Poets Agree to Be Quiet by the Swamp	95	(1)
Advice to the Orchestra	96	(1)
That Old Gang of Mine	97	(2)
Every Good Boy Does Fine	99	(1)
Diary	100	(1)
The Calculation	101	(2)
Going to Pieces	103	(2)
Making Up for a Soul	105	(1)
Walking in the Snow	106	(1)
On Seeing an X Ray of My Head	107	(1)
The Inexhaustible Hat	108	(1)
Waiting on the Curb	109	(1)
House Hunting	110	(1)
Lullaby through the Side of the Mouth	111	(1)
The Breaking Point	112	(1)
The First Law of Motion	113	(1)
Song Off-Key	114	(1)
The Trail Horse	115	(2)
Song to Accompany the Bearer of Bad News	117	(4)
From Who Shall Be the Sun? (1978)
Searching in the Britannia Tavern	121	(1)
Old Man, Old Man	122	(1)
Fog	123	(1)
Salmon Boy	124	(2)
Who Shall Be the Sun?	126	(2)
How Coyote Became Rock's Brother	128	(2)
How Stump Stood in the Water	130	(1)
How Raven Stole Light	131	(2)
Song for the Bones of Salmon	133	(1)
Song for the Coming of Smallpox	134	(1)
Song of a Man Who Rushed at the Enemy	135	(1)
Death Song	136	(1)
Burial Song	137	(4)
From Through the Forest: New and Selected Poems, 1977--87
One
After the Speech to the Librarians	141	(2)
Sharp-Shin	143	(2)
Return to the Swamp	145	(1)
The Author of American Ornithology Sketches a Bird, Now Extinct	146	(1)
Thoreau and the Snapping Turtle	147	(2)
Bears	149	(1)
Games	150	(1)
Photographing a Rattlesnake	151	(1)
Washing a Young Rhinoceros	152	(1)
Sitting by a Swamp	153	(1)
Loons Mating	154	(1)
Whisper Song	155	(1)
Kingfisher	156	(1)
Chorus	157	(1)
The Source	158	(2)
Getting There	160	(1)
Two
Feeding	161	(2)
Boy Jesus	163	(1)
The Junior High School Band Concert	164	(2)
My Father's Garden	166	(1)
My Fire	167	(2)
The Best Slow Dancer	169	(1)
Looking for Nellie Washington	170	(2)
My Father's Football Game	172	(1)
My Father in the Basement	173	(1)
My Father's Ghost	174	(1)
Elegy for My Mother	175	(1)
In the Dream House	176	(1)
Their Bodies	177	(1)
Three
Stump Speech	178	(2)
An Address to Weyerhaeuser, the Tree-Growing Company	180	(2)
The Shape	182	(1)
Three Ways of a River	183	(1)
The Excursion of the Speech and Hearing Class	184	(1)
Driftwood	185	(1)
Four
On Motel Walls	186	(1)
Applying for a Loan with the Help of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles	187	(1)
Poem about Breath	188	(1)
Catching the Big One at Lone Lake	189	(2)
Eulogy for Richard Hugo (1923--82)	191	(2)
Elegy while Pruning Roses	193	(2)
The Death of the Moon	195	(1)
The Astronomer's Apprentice	196	(2)
Lament for the Nonswimmers	198	(1)
The Naval Trainees Learn How to Jump Overboard	199	(1)
Canticle for Xmas Eve	200	(1)
Your Fortune: A Cold Reading	201	(2)
The Calm	203	(2)
Reading the Sky	205	(2)
Landfall	207	(1)
Five
For a Woman Who Doubted the Power of Love	208	(1)
Falling Asleep in a Garden	209	(1)
The Orchard of the Dreaming Pigs	210	(1)
Waking Up in a Garden	211	(1)
A Woman Feeding Gulls	212	(1)
A Woman Standing in the Surf	213	(1)
Lifesaving	214	(1)
That Moment	215	(1)
A Guide to the Field	216	(2)
Getting Away	218	(2)
Our Blindness	220	(1)
By Starlight	221	(1)
For a Third Anniversary	222	(1)
Downstream	223	(1)
First Light	224	(3)
From Walt Whitman Bathing (1996)
One
The Pink Boy	227	(1)
The Laughing Boy	228	(2)
Dizzy	230	(1)
My Father Laughing in the Chicago Theater	231	(2)
My Passenger	233	(2)
My Mother and Father	235	(1)
Walking around the Block with a Three-Year-Old	236	(1)
A Woman Photographing Holsteins	237	(1)
At the Mouth of a Creek	238	(1)
Two
Walt Whitman Bathing	239	(2)
The Rosebush	241	(2)
Love Still Has Something of the Sea	243	(1)
A Young Woman Trying on a Victorian Hat	244	(1)
The Padded Cell	245	(1)
Blindman	246	(1)
Three
Bear	247	(2)
A Pair of Barn Owls, Hunting	249	(1)
For a Woman Who Phoned Poetry Northwest Thinking It Was Poultry Northwest	250	(1)
Living with Snakes	251	(1)
Clancy the Burro's First Day in Heaven	252	(2)
For the Young Vine Maples	254	(1)
For a Young Shield Fern	255	(16)
Sequence: Landscapes
Mapmaking	256	(2)
On a Mountainside	258	(2)
By a Waterfall	260	(1)
On the Plains	261	(2)
In a Pasture	263	(1)
By a River	264	(1)
On the Forest Floor	265	(1)
In a Field of Wildflowers	266	(5)
New Poems
The Silence of the Stars	271	(2)
In the House of the Dragon	273	(2)
Recital	275	(1)
Recitation	276	(1)
A Letter Home	277	(1)
A Summer Storm in Navarre, Ohio	278	(2)
The Young Goats	280	(2)
In a Garden	282	(2)
Alexandra and the Spiders	284	(1)
In the Shadow	285	(2)
Looking for Shiva in the Public Market	287	(2)
The Return of Orpheus	289	(2)
Night at the Zoo	291	(2)
Elegy for Some of My Poems	293	(1)
Plainsong against the Raising of the Dead	294	(2)
At the Summit	296	(2)
Planting a Red Maple	298	(2)
For a Row of Laurel Shrubs	300	(2)
Acknowledgments	302