From Booklist
Those who think that stripped-down, skinny-lined, unrhymed modernist verse can't be sentimental should try Robertson. In the flat, slowly extruded voice you can hear from western Minnesota to western Nevada, Robertson spins out one-to five-word lines about driving around, drinking, picking up women, settling in a desert town, raising a son apparently by himself, remembering loves lost, watching the weather, painting (art seems a preoccupation if not an avocation), and generally living in and observing Nevada. This isn't cowboy verse. It is more like the modern Indian poetry of Adrian C. Louis, though not violent, angry, and morbidly funny. It is comfortable, full of stark western versions of the ethereal moods of classical Chinese poetry and of fabulously catchy pop art conceits, such as finding Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe "in Reno drinking doubles" after filming The Misfits and talking about "just moving on getting out." Amusing, painlessly readable stuff. Ray Olson
Review
0 And 2
4:37 A.m.
5:22 A.m.
5:30 News
Adjusting To The Desert
Advice
Again And Again
All Day Long
Almost Like A Breeze
Amor Fati
Approaching Valmy
Arlee, Montana
Artists' Statements
Arts Administration
Assholes
At Workman's
Babble
Badlands
Battle Mountain
Berdache
Birth
Birthday
Blues For A Brontosaurus
A Body Of Work
The Bone Game
Candle
Captive
Carpinteria
Cellaring
Charm
The Clorox Kid
Coffee
The Color Of Water
Crossroads
Cultural Anthropology
A Dark Night
Dead Dog
Death
Delivering The Show
Desert Saudade
Desire
Dilemma
A Discussion Concerning Lodging
Distance
Drawing To An Inside Straight
Driving
Driving God & The Grieving Widow
Driving To Montana With V.
Driving To Vegas
Drumstick For Cody
Dry Spell
Dust
Easter
Eclipse
Edges
Election Night
Erotic
Exactly Eight Degrees
Exquisite
Fado For A Sultry Afternoon With The Blinds Partly Pulled
Fahrenheit 451 At 22 Below
Fallon
False Spring
Finding Stillwater
Finish High School
Fire
Fishin' In The Dark
Fog At The Borders Of The Palms
For Now
Forty-six
Found Frozen
Four Or Five Beers Dorsey's Bar Gabbs, Nevada
Fractions
Fulcrum
Gardening
Getting Across
Gladioli
Goin' To The Post Office With My Son
Gone In February
Gossip
Gray
Grief
Halloween
Heart's Correlative
Heyoka
Hindsight
A Hole In One
Hopper
How It Is
How The Missionaries Came
How The Treaty Was Signed
How To Join The Ant Fraternity
How To Join The Cactus Fraternity
How To Join The Eagle Down Fraternity
How To Join The Fraternity That Does Not Fast From Animal Food
How To Join The Galaxy Fraternity
How To Join The Hunters' Fraternity
How To Join The Little Fire Fraternity
How To Join The Rattlesnake Fraternity
How To Join The Spiral Shell Fraternity
How To Join The Struck By Lightning Fraternity
How To Join The Sword Swallowers Fraternity
Howling
Hunt
I-80 Headed West
Ice Lines
Incompetent Psychedelic Rotogravure
It's Like Putting On Your Hat While Reaching Out For Your Ears
It's Not As If Everything Came From New York
January
Jealousy
Just Past Labor Day
Ketchup In Ketchum
Larry Moon
Last Dance
The Letter
A Letter To Boston
Listening To Hank Williams
Local Knowledge
Looking
Looking At Maps
Love Poems
Lovelock To Twin Falls
Lure
Making Reservations
Marriage
Mason Lake
Measles
Metaphor
The Mighty Hunter
Mirage Factor
The Misfits
The Mizpah Sonnet
Mole And The Sky
Moments
Monday Night, Lovelock
Montauk Cafe
Morna
Morningland
Movin' On
Music; For Valerie & For Jack Fulton
Mustard Colored Rain
My Father
Naming
Neon
Nevada
Nevada Weather
Night Music
Not Quite Dark
Note To A Painter
November 2nd
October And Not Much Relief In Sight
Of Course There Are Many Different Versions Of This Story, But...
The Ole Mind-body Split Healed
Olympics
Omen
On The Dresser
One Deep Breath
The Opening
Out Here
Outside Ely In The Rain
Owl
Painting
Pecan Pies
Personal Values, 1952
Petroglyphs
The Photograph
Piracy
Poetics
Poetry Readings, Dim Bulbs & Bad Renditions Of Chamber Music
Pollock
Postcard To My Unborn Son
Powers
Powwow
Proverb
Punctuation
A Quiet Man
Red Mountain
Red Web
Reflections In A Desert Wind
Relations
A Reply
Rheumatoid Variants
Rimbaud Stops At The Liquor Store In Mojave
Rno - Sfo - Lax
Rodeo's In Town
Rothko
Rounding Third
Running Low
Salt
Saturday Night, St. Ignatius, Montana
Scenes From The French Revolution
Schwitters
Scratch Shot
Seeing The Light
Seurat
Sierra Wind
Sifting
Small Ritual For Kerouac
Smoke
Snakes
Snapshots
Snowing And In The Dark
Something No One Catches
South Laguna
Spell
Spiral
A Stitch In Time
Sundance
Sunday Service At Short Bear's House
Tahoe
Talkin' Cow-calf Pairs At The Coney Island Bar
Teddy Bllue Abbot's Recipe
Ten Gallon Clouds
Thanx For The Drinks Ladies
Things To Do At Jane's Cabin
Thinking About You, Reading Creeley
Thirty-seven
Titanic
Tonopah
Top Pieces For The Axis Nave
Traffic
Twilight In San Juan
Twin Falls To St. Ignatius
Vietnam
The View
Visitor
Waiting
Waiting For The Call
Water
West Nevada Waltz
What Caused Pimples On People's Heads
What She Did With The Silverware Given To Her By A U.s. Congressman
Wheat Field With Crows, 1890
When It Will Happen
Why There Is No Longer A Perpetual Fire Kept In The Kiva Of Any Pueblo
Wind
Winter
Without Apparent Cause
Wohaws
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
4:37 A.m.
5:22 A.m.
5:30 News
Adjusting To The Desert
Advice
Again And Again
All Day Long
Almost Like A Breeze
Amor Fati
Approaching Valmy
Arlee, Montana
Artists' Statements
Arts Administration
Assholes
At Workman's
Babble
Badlands
Battle Mountain
Berdache
Birth
Birthday
Blues For A Brontosaurus
A Body Of Work
The Bone Game
Candle
Captive
Carpinteria
Cellaring
Charm
The Clorox Kid
Coffee
The Color Of Water
Crossroads
Cultural Anthropology
A Dark Night
Dead Dog
Death
Delivering The Show
Desert Saudade
Desire
Dilemma
A Discussion Concerning Lodging
Distance
Drawing To An Inside Straight
Driving
Driving God & The Grieving Widow
Driving To Montana With V.
Driving To Vegas
Drumstick For Cody
Dry Spell
Dust
Easter
Eclipse
Edges
Election Night
Erotic
Exactly Eight Degrees
Exquisite
Fado For A Sultry Afternoon With The Blinds Partly Pulled
Fahrenheit 451 At 22 Below
Fallon
False Spring
Finding Stillwater
Finish High School
Fire
Fishin' In The Dark
Fog At The Borders Of The Palms
For Now
Forty-six
Found Frozen
Four Or Five Beers Dorsey's Bar Gabbs, Nevada
Fractions
Fulcrum
Gardening
Getting Across
Gladioli
Goin' To The Post Office With My Son
Gone In February
Gossip
Gray
Grief
Halloween
Heart's Correlative
Heyoka
Hindsight
A Hole In One
Hopper
How It Is
How The Missionaries Came
How The Treaty Was Signed
How To Join The Ant Fraternity
How To Join The Cactus Fraternity
How To Join The Eagle Down Fraternity
How To Join The Fraternity That Does Not Fast From Animal Food
How To Join The Galaxy Fraternity
How To Join The Hunters' Fraternity
How To Join The Little Fire Fraternity
How To Join The Rattlesnake Fraternity
How To Join The Spiral Shell Fraternity
How To Join The Struck By Lightning Fraternity
How To Join The Sword Swallowers Fraternity
Howling
Hunt
I-80 Headed West
Ice Lines
Incompetent Psychedelic Rotogravure
It's Like Putting On Your Hat While Reaching Out For Your Ears
It's Not As If Everything Came From New York
January
Jealousy
Just Past Labor Day
Ketchup In Ketchum
Larry Moon
Last Dance
The Letter
A Letter To Boston
Listening To Hank Williams
Local Knowledge
Looking
Looking At Maps
Love Poems
Lovelock To Twin Falls
Lure
Making Reservations
Marriage
Mason Lake
Measles
Metaphor
The Mighty Hunter
Mirage Factor
The Misfits
The Mizpah Sonnet
Mole And The Sky
Moments
Monday Night, Lovelock
Montauk Cafe
Morna
Morningland
Movin' On
Music; For Valerie & For Jack Fulton
Mustard Colored Rain
My Father
Naming
Neon
Nevada
Nevada Weather
Night Music
Not Quite Dark
Note To A Painter
November 2nd
October And Not Much Relief In Sight
Of Course There Are Many Different Versions Of This Story, But...
The Ole Mind-body Split Healed
Olympics
Omen
On The Dresser
One Deep Breath
The Opening
Out Here
Outside Ely In The Rain
Owl
Painting
Pecan Pies
Personal Values, 1952
Petroglyphs
The Photograph
Piracy
Poetics
Poetry Readings, Dim Bulbs & Bad Renditions Of Chamber Music
Pollock
Postcard To My Unborn Son
Powers
Powwow
Proverb
Punctuation
A Quiet Man
Red Mountain
Red Web
Reflections In A Desert Wind
Relations
A Reply
Rheumatoid Variants
Rimbaud Stops At The Liquor Store In Mojave
Rno - Sfo - Lax
Rodeo's In Town
Rothko
Rounding Third
Running Low
Salt
Saturday Night, St. Ignatius, Montana
Scenes From The French Revolution
Schwitters
Scratch Shot
Seeing The Light
Seurat
Sierra Wind
Sifting
Small Ritual For Kerouac
Smoke
Snakes
Snapshots
Snowing And In The Dark
Something No One Catches
South Laguna
Spell
Spiral
A Stitch In Time
Sundance
Sunday Service At Short Bear's House
Tahoe
Talkin' Cow-calf Pairs At The Coney Island Bar
Teddy Bllue Abbot's Recipe
Ten Gallon Clouds
Thanx For The Drinks Ladies
Things To Do At Jane's Cabin
Thinking About You, Reading Creeley
Thirty-seven
Titanic
Tonopah
Top Pieces For The Axis Nave
Traffic
Twilight In San Juan
Twin Falls To St. Ignatius
Vietnam
The View
Visitor
Waiting
Waiting For The Call
Water
West Nevada Waltz
What Caused Pimples On People's Heads
What She Did With The Silverware Given To Her By A U.s. Congressman
Wheat Field With Crows, 1890
When It Will Happen
Why There Is No Longer A Perpetual Fire Kept In The Kiva Of Any Pueblo
Wind
Winter
Without Apparent Cause
Wohaws
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
