Believing and espousing an American tradition alive in the testimony of Anne Hutchinson, in the prose-poetry of Thoreau, and in the music of Ives, Donald Revell's new poems seek moments of harmony between language and silence. The death of the poet's father and almost concurrent birth of his son form the emotional underpinnings of this meditation on faith. "Every morning, beginning in childhood, / the music of variation sustains / the equal loneliness of every soul." These spare and elegant poems speak of a conversion in which a new city is founded in the heart of silence, and grace is a refinement of grammar.

DONALD REVELL was a National Poetry Series Winner in 1982 for his first book of poems, From Abandoned Cities (1983). In 1985 he won a Pushcart Prize. His collection New Dark Ages (Wesleyan 1990) won the PEN Center USA West Award for Poetry. He is currently Professor of English at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. His other books include Erasures (Wesleyan, 1992), and Beautiful Shirt (Wesleyan, 1994); he also translated a volume of poetry by Guillaume Apollinaire, entitled Alcools (Wesleyan, 1995).

A Branch of the Discipline Overthrow Upon Diagnosis Inquire Societies Can Be Improved. Societies Cannot Be Good. Homage to Mrs. Jane Lead Elegy Above My Father There are Three To the Lord Protector A Cold September A New October Extinction Thanksgiving for a Son Advent A Clasp Once Divided Scherzo Fewer Than Music The Memory of New England Hypethral A Day of Crisis No a Quiet Day Outbreak No Difference I know They Are.