The best of it: new and selected poems

New poems. Odd blocks -- The edges of time -- Bait goat -- Train-track figure -- We're building the ship as we sail it -- Virga -- Dogleg -- Cloud -- Ledge -- Stations -- Repetition -- The pharaohs -- Pentimenti -- Bitter pill -- Polish and balm -- Retroactive -- Galápago -- Finish -- Shift -- Easter Island -- Cut out for it -- Spiderweb -- Still life with lemons, oranges and a rose -- After Zeno --

Flamingo watching 1994. This life -- Extraordinary lengths -- Every painting by Chagall -- The tables freed -- Leaving spaces -- Periphery -- The mock ruin -- Is it modest? -- The things of the world -- Emptiness -- Slant -- Apology -- Vacation -- A certain kind of Eden -- No rest for the idle -- The narrow path -- When fishing fails -- Say it straight -- Glass slippers -- How successful can she afford to be? -- Repetition -- Les natures profondement bonnes sont toujours indécises -- So different -- Half a loaf -- Soft -- Spring -- I marveled at how generally I was aided -- Impersonal -- A certain meanness of culture -- The test we set ourself -- Force -- Miners' canaries -- The hinge of spring -- Deer -- Sheep in wolves' clothing -- Snake charm -- The palm at the end of the mind -- Poetry is a kind of money -- Persiflage -- Masterworks of Ming -- Breast birds -- Paired things -- Osprey -- Turtle --

Elephant rocks 1996. Living with stripes -- Doubt -- Mirage oases -- Cirque -- Chemistry -- That vase of lilacs -- Connections -- Dew -- Lacquer artist -- All shall be restored -- Full measure -- Stars of Bethlehems -- Crib -- Bestiary -- How birds sing -- How a thought thinks -- Intention -- If the moon happened once -- New clothes -- Simply by growing larger -- To the young anglerfish -- Crustacean Island -- Imaginary Eskimos -- Outsider art -- Caught -- Les petites confitures -- Why isn't it all more marked -- Witness -- Learning -- Apogee -- Against gravity -- Lacunae -- Intransigence -- Age -- Counsel -- Insult -- Silence -- A cat/a future -- Hope -- Losses -- The cabinet of curiosities -- Her politeness -- Bad patch -- Swept up whole -- Any morning -- Relief -- Part Midas -- The woman who wrote too much -- Sonnet to spring -- A plain ordinary steel needle can float on pure water -- Distance -- The vessel and the cup -- Wooden -- The second -- Heat -- Poetry in translation -- If she only had one minute --

Say uncle 2000. Corners -- Star block -- Mockingbird -- A hundred bolts of satin -- The excluded animals -- Blandeur -- Composition -- Patience -- Coming and going -- Nothing ventured -- That will to divest -- Winter fear -- Grazing horses -- Waste -- Forgetting -- The fourth wise man -- Beasts -- Gaps -- The fabric of life -- Help -- The pass -- The pieces that fall to earth -- Don't look back -- It's always darkest just before the dawn -- Blunt -- Diamonds -- Herring -- The silence islands -- Cheshire -- Yeses -- Great thoughts -- Test -- Crown -- Bad day -- Among English verbs -- Lime light -- Why we must struggle -- Drops in the bucket -- The job -- Dutch -- Chemise -- Deferred silence -- Attention -- Failure -- Matrigupta -- Weakness and doubt -- Failure 2 -- Two more, and up goes the donkey -- Water under the bridge -- Your face will stick -- And all becomes as before --

The Niagara River 2005. Home to roost

Carrying a ladder

Sharks' teeth

Weak forces

The elephant in the room

A ball rolls on a point

The best of it

Chinese foot chart

Shipwreck

The other shoe

Atlas

He lit a fire with icicles

Rats' tails

Added significance

Chop

Felix crow

Desert reservoirs

Hailstorm

Expectations

Green hills

Rubbing lamps

Tenderness and rot

Tar babies

Tired blood

Theft

Ideal audience

Caps

Thin

Stardust

Blue China doorknob

Salvage

The light of interiors

Things shouldn't be so hard

The past

Reverse drama

Fake spots

Legerdemain

Hide and seek

Post-construction

Least action

Chart

No names

The material

The well or the cup

Late justice

Backward miracle

Green behind the ears

Thieves

Lighthouse keeping

Tune.