Bucolics（ISBN=9780156034753）

　　Manning celebrates the virtues of nature and finds deep gratitude for the mysterious hand that created it all. (Deseret Morning News )

　　Untitled and unpunctuated, the seventy poems in this acclaimed collection seem to cascade from one page to another. Maurice Manning extolls the virtues of nature and its many gifts, and finds deep gratitude for the mysterious hand that created it all. that bare branch that branch made black by the rain the silver raindrop hanging from the black branch Boss I like that black branch I like that shiny raindrop Boss tell me if I'm wrong but it makes me think you're looking right at me now isn't that a lark for me to think you look that way upside down like a tree frog Boss I'm not surprised at all I wouldn't doubt it for a minute you're always up to something I'll say one thing you're all right all right you are even when you're hanging Boss

　　MAURICE MANNING's poems have appeared in the Southern Review, the Virginia Quarterly Review, and the New Yorker, and his first collection of poems was awarded the Yale Younger Poets Award. He teaches English at Indiana University. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana, and Danville, Kentucky.