A Family Is A Mystery.

When I Quit All These Things And Said I Didn't Have Any Time, I Meant I Didn't Have Any Time.

When Anyone Escapes, My Heart / Leaps Up. Even When It's I Who Am Escaped From, / I Am Half On The Side Of The Leaver.

Poems Come From Ordinary Experiences And Objects, I Think. Out Of Memory - A Dress I Lent My Daughter On Her Way Back To College; A Newspaper Photograph Of War; A Breast Self-exam; The Tooth Fairy; Calvinist Parents Who Beat Up Their Children; A Gesture Of Love; Seeing Oneself Naked Over Age 50 In A Set Of Bright Hotel Bathroom Mirrors.

At One Point I Took On A New Job, And I Just Didn't Have Time To Do Anything But Work.

The Decision For Me Was Whether To Have 'the Father' Be A Book That Told A Story - From The Point Of View Of This Speaker, The Daughter - Without, As In The Earlier Books, Then Having A Section On Something Else And A Section On Something Else.