Down there the little star-nosed engine of desire
at work all night, secretive- in the morning
a new line running across the wet grass, near the surface,
like a vein. Don't you wish the road of excess
led to the palace of wisdom, wouldn't that be nice?
Deep Lane is a book of descents- into the earth beneath the garden, into the dark substrata of a life. But these poems seek repair, finally, through the possibilities that sustain the speaker above ground- gardens and animals; the pleasure of seeing; the world tuned by the word. Time and again, an image of immolation and sacrifice is undercut by the fierce fortitude of nature- nature that is not just a solace but a potent antidote and cure. Ranging from agony to rapture, from great depths to hard-won heights, these are poems of grace and nobility.
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