the runners, different yet the same, sweatshirts wet on their backs, legs pounding the stones in place, a sudden burst of speed as they pass by, nodding his way with the nod a newsboy gives with change, cautiously, making sure his fingers don't touch your palm. He's wanted to come here to the grandstand, stark in its concrete and bolted slabs of wood, and the stones -- most of all the stones; He remembers how he'd fondle them, flicking one away each time he finished a lap, running flatout with the last one tight inside his fist, keeping it, storing it away with the others at home. The runners are at the far bend and coming hard -- they will pass him again, where he stands aside, feeling the stones tumbling in the dark he has made of his hands. Here's what poets James Dickey and Miller Williams have said about On Earth as It Is by Dan Masterson. "Poetry in the second half of the twentieth century is striving desperately for the truly human. Most of the time it fails to reach the ground between abstract, intellectual, chilling perfection and the wallowing in self-pity that we all know in contemporary verse. Dan Masterson has achieved that fortunate and magical ground." -J.D. "A compelling first book come out of a large spirit and a tough mind. ... This is one of the books I'll keep within reach." -M.W. Dan Masterson came to poetry by way of stints as narrator, actor,