Those Bates Magazine readers who were fortunate enough to study with John Tagliabue will find in this collection lasting confirmation of the comprehensive, agile delight he has always brought to his teaching and his writing. Bates was home for forty-odd years to a poet of distinction, dedication, and great gifts. This book testifies not only to his literary achievement, but also, I believe, to the unforgettable impression his intensity made upon ten cohorts of students. The anguish in the sick bed is engraved on the foam. The opulent is found or lost in the twinkling of an eye.
Someone performs a ritual in the shadows.
Achievements flare up like the flames of orange moths on Paros. Faces keep appearing from the distant past. Boats appear with cargoes never seen before. Poet Robert Farnsworth has been a member of the Department of English faculty at Bates since 1990. He is the author of Three or Four Hills and a Cloud and Honest Water, both published by the Wesleyan University Press.