Outpost : A Collection of Poems

The settings of these poems are not 'poetic'--the suburbs, the commuter's routine, the sad pilgrimage from anticipation to regret, from the promise of life to the certainty of death, with all its preliminary indignities. The themes and voice--disciplined by traditional craft, enriched by detachment, conscious of the immensities of time and space that frame our lives, diminishing and exalting them--are another matter. They contain gravity, delight, and mockery within them. One thinks of the Frost of "Desert Places," but in the context of our own time. There is a consolation in making music and a consolation in facing facts. OUTPOST, with many variations, provides both." --Franklin Burroughs