At head of title on cover: "Poems." Includes bibliographical references.
Contents:
Boat Emanate -- The campanile -- Wish meal -- Corrugated longing -- For a spell -- Breakage -- Pupil -- Yearning -- The way of the cross leads home -- Divine -- Recede -- Dear God -- Docena -- Psalm River -- Alma mater -- Nagoya, April 1947 -- Diaphanous -- Come Monday -- State Road 9 and Finly -- Another -- Blue fervor -- Chain o' lakes -- Boys do that -- Tryout -- Innocents -- Giant tree, West -- Mayday -- "The swan's metal voice rings like a harp" -- On the day you are dying -- Westbound -- Wood Friday -- Oregon horticulture -- Site reading -- Shoelace littoral -- My ink is bad -- Miniature -- Embellish -- Bracing -- Ferment -- Winter flight -- Mudflat allure -- Stellar -- Molt -- Graveyard nurse's rime -- Admission -- Stalling -- Cabin fever -- Timbre & life -- Avionics -- Big spoon -- Crevice -- Return post from Candide -- Iron summer -- The straits -- Summer ossuary -- Transients -- November road -- Din, Dinner, -- Boat
Summary:
Wish Meal charts one mans evolution from El Dorado pilgrim and prodigal son to a stay-at-home father, navigating from his Indiana boyhood to the family he makes in the Pacific Northwest. In Whitsels poems, we encounter places, rites, decades and nights of perishable abundance. He nurtures apple trees, secrets, prize tomatoes, fascinations and bewildering kids. He navigates between the burden of an heirloom faith and the transcendence of Oregon rivers and skies. The Wish of belonging becomes Whitsels grist, his Meal, subject to blemish and ferment.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.