Thanks are due to the editors of the following magazines in which some of these poems first appeared:
American Poetry Review (“Even Nietzsche,” “Job: A New Edition,” “To a Novelist,” and “Words from a Poor Man”)
The Atlantic Monthly (“Night Sky” and “Punch Bowl”)
The Café Review (“The True Self”)
The Cincinnati Review (“Birthday,” “A Blessing,” and “Virtue”)
The Cortland Review (“From the Cove Hotel”)
New Ohio Review (“At the Mall” and “Habitat”)
The MacGuffin (“Angel and Cabinet Maker,” “Legacy,” and “Next Time”)
The New Yorker (“A Maxim,” “New Year’s Eve,” and “Unfolding”)
Ploughshares (“Behind a Bookcase,” “Introduction to Philosophy,” and “Loitering”)
Plume (“Animal Husbandry,” “Missing,” and “More Reason”)
Provincetown Arts Magazine (“First Words”)
Salmagundi (“A Clairvoyant,” “In the Kingdom,” “My Noah,” and “Summer at the Lake”)
Slate (“Silent Manners”)
Upstreet (“Mailing Gifts, December 21”)
This manuscript has benefited greatly from careful readings by several critical friends: Charles Altieri, Thomas Centolella, Alan Feldman, Mark Halliday, Tony Hoagland, Philip Schultz, and Emily Wheeler.