Contents

Publisher’s Note

The Reader Inquires, the Author Answers

POEMS

Questions My Son Asked Me, Answers I Never Gave Him

In Praise of Unwashed Feet

When There Were Trees

How to Stuff a Pepper

Moss

Onionlight

The Potato Picker

Roots

How the Hen Sold Her Eggs to the Stingy Priest

A Wreath to the Fish

A Humane Society

Marriage Amulet

For You, Who Didn’t Know

In Praise of ABC

Walking Poem

Angels in Winter

Carpenter of the Sun

One for the Road

Little Elegy with Books and Beasts
From 19 Masks for the Naked Poet

The Poet Invites the Moon for Supper

The Poet Takes a Photograph of His Heart

The Poet Turns His Enemy into a Pair of Wings

The Poet’s Wife Watches Him Enter the Eye of the Snow
From The Ballad of Biddy Early

The Ballad of Biddy Early

How the Magic Bottle Gave Biddy Its Blessing

Charm of the Gold Road, the Silver Road, and the Hidden Road

How the Queen of the Gypsies Met Trouble-and-Pain

How Biddy Hid Mick the Moonlighter’s Sleep in Her Sleeve

Biddy Early Makes a Long Story Short

Song from the Far Side of Sleep
From A Visit to William Blake’s Inn

William Blake’s Inn for Innocent and Experienced Travelers

Blake Leads a Walk on the Milky Way

The King of Cats Sends a Postcard to His Wife

The Tiger Asks Blake for a Bedtime Story

Epilogue

Three from the Sports Page

“Buffalo Climbs Out of Cellar”

“Saints Lose Back”

“Divine Child Rolls On”

FICTION

The Hucklebone of a Saint

The Doctrine of the Leather-Stocking Jesus

Theo’s Girl

Sinner, Don’t You Waste That Sunday

The Life of a Famous Man
From Things Invisible to See

Salvage for Victory

FOUR LECTURES ON WRITING

The Well-tempered Falsehood: The Art of Storytelling

How Poetry Came into the World and Why God Doesn’t Write It

Telling Time

Close Encounters of the Story Kind

Acknowledgments

About the Author