Maps and Transcripts of the Ordinary World

envelope. Out in the open. Word and picture as rivals. At odds. And I was there. And while I was there I spent a half an hour. A record. Thinking of you. And this is the size of the Blanchard River flood that year. Taken from above. And this is the size of the whole island. You can tell by the relative size of the small fishing boats. By the trunks of trees under water. By the people standing under the arch. Looking up. A scope. A miniature. And I was there. And I breathed the original air.

DIRECTIONS

Start here. Walk to here.

From here, go to here.

Stay here for a time.

Then, go here.

These things will be all around you.

Look around.

You’ll like it here.

But you really must push on

until you get here.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Grateful acknowledgment to the editors of the following publications, in which poems from this book have appeared, sometimes under different names and in different forms: The Best American Experimental Writing 2014 (Omnidawn), Bombay Gin, Clade Song, Colorado Review, Drunken Boat, Flatmancrooked’s Slim Volume of Contemporary Poetics, Forklift: Ohio, Free Verse, Interim, Kingfisher, The Offending Adam, Versal, Verse, Western Humanities Review, Witness, and Word for/Word. Thank you to Cole Swensen, who selected “Map,” “Fieldguide,” and “Transcript” for the Academy of American Poets Larry Levis Poetry Prize for 2009. Many of these poems were made possible through the Snow-Neff Fellowship at the University of Utah; a pivotal travel grant from the Reza Ali Khazeni Memorial Scholarship for Graduate Study Abroad; a faculty development grant from Ohio Northern University; and faculty research grants and a Fisher Center Fellowship from Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

The support of a lot of good people made this book possible, so a lot of thanking is in order. First and foremost, thank you to Geoffrey Babbitt, my prime reader and friend and partner and coconspirator in life. And to my girls, the dearest best pieces of my whole world: Remi Blake, Calder Rae, Sobin Elizabeth, and Adeline Cloudpants too.

Thank you to Louise Glück, who spent hour after hour and visit after visit helping a perfect stranger rearrange her chronology until it finally made sense. I will never get over this gift you gave me, asking nothing in return. You are a wonder.

Thank you to everyone at Milkweed—to Daniel Slager for believing in this book in the first place, and to Jordan Bascom, Shannon Blackmer, Joanna Demkiewicz, Bailey Hutchinson, Joey McGarvey, Kathryn Nuernberger, Lee Oglesby, and Mary Austin Speaker for their dedication, enthusiasm, acumen, and heart. Thank you to Heather Brown and Mind the Bird Media for teaching me to aim high and then giving me the tools, support, and encouragement to get there.

Thank you to my teachers and mentors, most especially Karen Brennan, Kate Coles, Craig Dworkin, Kathryn Stockton (from whom I borrowed “I see myself there but I feel myself here”), Susan Howe, Paisley Rekdal, and Jackie Osherow, and all the way back to Laurie Payne and Michael Rutter, who fired the first shots.

Thanks to my big beautiful blended family: David and Natalie Cowles, Delys and Phil Snyder, Leon and “Grandma Elizabeth” Cowles, Merwin and June Waite, Cristie and Steven, Rob and Erin, Steve and Brooke, Jack, Marissa and Brett, Liam and Ethan, Gary Babbitt, Cherie and Jim Clayton, Brooke and Chad, Laramie, Travis and Heidi, Kate and Alex, and all my beloved nieces and nephews and beyond.

Thank you to the dear friends who worked and reworked these poems in writing groups and who taught me how to be a writer and a teacher and a human being: Rebecca Lindenberg and Timothy O’Keefe (best witnesses/friends), Rachel Marston (who once saved me with a camp pad and open arms), David Weiss (a true friend and advocate), summer writing group-ers—Eryn Green (O Pan Fire! member), Nathan Hauke, Cami Nelson, Wendy Scofield, and Brenda Sieczkowski (for their support, inspiration, goading on, and martini sharing)—as well as Chris Abani, Hanna Andrews, Saedra Blow, Khalym Burke-Thomas, Harmony Button, Lara Candland, PJ Carlisle, Jeff Chapman, Jennifer Colville, Traci O Connor, Jackson Connor, Peter Covino, Kelly Craig, Shira Dentz, Danielle Duelen, Trista Emmer, Robert Glick, Susan Goslee, Natalie Green, Maddie Hanley, Derek Henderson (my twin), Matthew Ho, Brooke Johnson, Claudia Keelan, Stacy Kidd, Matt Kirkpatrick, Esther Lee, Julie Gonnering Lein, Alice Letowt, Joel Long, Dawn Lonsinger, Christine Marshall, Susan McCarty, Joshua McKinney, Andrew Merecicky, Jennilyn Merten, Meghan Moore, Emily Motzkus, Deb Moeller, Jens Olavson, Julie Paegle, Michael Palmer, Christopher Patton, Jacob Paul Paul, Derek Pollard, David Ruhlman, Anne Royston, Mary Ruefle, Danny Schonning, Ely Shipley, Eleni Sikelianos, Nick Snow, Beth Spencer (and beautiful Bear Star Press generally), Claire Tranchino, Joshua Unikel, Nicole Walker, Lito Weiss, Mike White, and Khaty Xiong. Thanks also to Lucia Cardone, Carly Petroski, Sarah Taylor, Hanno Webster, Lindsay Webster, and all the other wonderful people who have provided childcare, giving me peace of mind and time to write.

Thank you to “Grandma Sue” Wicklund. You have changed the very way my eyes work.

Thanks to the friends and colleagues I’ve picked up along the way for their camaraderie and support, especially Robin Lewis (so glad we refound each other), Sue Gage (who keeps me sane), Tina Smaldone (who stops me from doing stupid things), Cáel Keegan, Melanie Conroy-Hamilton, Anna Creadick, Ingrid Keenan, Sarah Berry and Rod King, Taylor Brorby, James McCorkle, Kirin Makker, Kristine Johanson, and Ben Ristow. Thanks to my Fisher Center cohort—Cadence Whittier, Anthony Cerulli, Jess Hayes-Conroy, Brianne Gallagher, Keoka Grayson, Joe Mink, and Maggie Werner; to the HWS Center for Teaching and Learning, especially Susan Pliner; to the people who’ve supported the music part of all this, especially Rob Carson, Pablo Falbru, Brady Leo, and Mark Olivieri; and to my ONU friends, especially Druann Bauer, Doug Dowland, Eva McManus, and Rob Scott. Thank you all.

And finally, thank you to Donald Revell, “my teacher, now my friend,” who taught me the shapes of the writing to begin with. Whatever you say, it turns