Personal Things

This miscellany of essays, poems, translations and reminiscences coalesced around a rather difficult convalescence that I now look back on as a formal introduction to my 85th year. The titular essay on Rilke that comes near the end of the book was the last piece I'd finished before my back went out. Writing it taught me the fertility of exploring the life circumstances behind a poem you're translating, and this book began with that in mind. Versions of many of the essays and poems in the selection predate this century but I chose them because, burnished with the patina of my discontented winter, they also evoked a life beyond their text. The original poems intentionally pierce (or maybe ignore) the persona of my lifelong pen name. And the translation material focusses on the translator along with the translation. Many of the poems are new, and many of the older ones were reworked. I left the journal extracts intact. Stitching this manuscript together with the help of my decade's long editor-compadre, Paul Vangelisti, I realized 85th birthdays can indeed be celebrated. You just have to celebrate them backwards.