A 4th of July in the early 30's 3 --
Without stress or agony 9 --
We have hand guns around here 19 --
Living in a great big way 36 --
How did they get their job? 44 --
Disorder and early sorrow 51 --
Never interrupt a writer at work 58 --
No eulogies, please 62 --
The machinery of loss 65 --
Damsels of the night 69 --
Where the action is real 83 --
Friend of the family 92 --
Solving a crime before it begins 94 --
The wine that roared 97 --
A clean, well-lighted place 105 --
Do we really care? 108 --
For crying out loud 111 --
For a woman who might some day become a nun 116 --
Some people ask for it 117 --
Against the Window pane 119 --
An answer to a day's worth of mail 121 --
New York, New York 122 --
The big lonely night 140 --
With his awful teeth 149 --
Surreal tangerines 153 --
Little magazines and poetry chapbooks 155 --
A name is nothing if the named is nothing 161 --
The stupidest thing I ever did 163 --
You can't make a lion out of a butterfly 165 --
I don't know about you but 168 --
It's a drag just breathing 172 --
A conversation to remember 177 --
He played first base 179 --
Snake eyes and faulty screams 183 --
I fought them from the moment I saw light 184 --
This is a bitter poem 196 --
Something's knocking at the door 212 --
Why oh why and oh why not? 227 --
Private screenings 239 --
As you slow down the mermaids look the other way 241 --
From the department of health 249 --
My friend William Burroughs 252 --
A note upon starvation 254 --
Poem for my 70th birthday 256 --
