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Minding the Sun

With characteristic sensitivity and intelligence, Robert Pack reflects on man’s relation to and responsibilities toward nature. Throughout, his verses are informed with an ecological vigilance born of his devotion to the New England landscape.

The opening section marks a return for Pack to the musical sensuality of the lyric. These short lyrics are uniquely his: the sequence begins in Vermont and concludes in the Andromeda galaxy, providing an opportunity to hold in mind the nurturing sun of our solar system.

The poems of the collection’s middle section, written in the flowing narrative and meditative mode familiar to Pack’s many admirers, take up the themes of human sexuality and consciousness. And the final section, replete with puns and paradoxes, shows Pack at his most playful as he muses on art, technology, romantic and marital desire, and the stubborn longing for transcendence. The poet concludes the volume with a sobering plea, "The Trees Will Die," to heed the sun’s example, to cherish and protect our planet and all its living things.

108 pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 | © 1996

Poetry

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
The Place
Summer
October Lingering
The Waiting
Eggplant
Leaving
The Pond
Embellishings
Listening
Loon Calls
November Dawn
Owl Reflections
The Watcher and the Hawk
Snow Rise
Storm
Midwinter Thaw
Betrayal
Fox Wound
The Wall
Spring Returns
Silence
Circle
The Merging
Her Shoes
Reunion
Turtles
Only in Zoos
The Sea
Laughter
Night Swim
Beyond Forgetting
Homeward
Minding the Sun
Observer
Hummingbird
The Human Eye
Rooting for Pleasure
Panegyric for a Cockroach
The Troll beneath the Bridge
The Loss of Estrus
Lament of the Male Gamete
Falling Away
Curing Sleep
The Empty Throne
Autumn Berries
Within Measure
The Drake Equation
The Barber of Civility
Witzelsucht
Bonkers
My Distant Friend
Determination
Picnic with Paradox
Elegy to the Sun
The Trees Will Die

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