The Desert Music and Other Poems - Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• "The Descent"
• "To Daphne and Virginia"
• "The Orchestra"
• "For Eleanor and Bill Monahan"
• "To a Dog Injured in the Street"
• "The Yellow Flower"
• "The Host"
• "Deep Religious Faith"
• "The Mental Hospital Garden"
• "The Artist"
• "Theocritus: Idyl I"
• "The Desert Music"

Except for the title poem, all the pieces here are in triadic stanza form (with slight exceptions), as in the opening of "The Descent":

The descent beckons
as the ascent beckoned.
Memory is a kind
of accomplishment,
a sort of renewal
even

Parts of "Theocritus: Idyl I" and "The Orchestra" were used in The Desert Music, a composition for chorus and orchestra or voices and ensemble by Minimalist composer Steve Reich in 1984.