New and selected poems make an excellent introduction to a fine American poet. Dixieland piano late at night in a pine woods ... an elderly woman's blue dress ... a postal clerk dispensing stamps, packaging, and devotion ... a ring and a prayer thrown into the River Ping ... a Thai lover on the back of a Honda 125 ... a man singing in a sidewalk machine shop ... an unexpected death ... The author's recent poems were written in Maine, Thailand, and Australia. They continue and extend the work in his three full length collections (each generously sampled here). The author uses clear words, usually beginning with a description, moving as he writes toward deeper understanding of the subject. "Every poem is a battle against style," he has said, "not to repeat yourself, to let the subject speak with its own voice." There is something for everyone in this book. The poems have a glow that strengthens on re-reading. A treat for poetry lovers.

This book is modeled on a book of Chinese and Japanese poems that I gave to a friend on the west coast. It was a very small book with a yellow cover, stapled together. No adornments. Just the poems, alive after hundreds of years. J.M.W.

This is the third full length collection by one of the finest contemporary American poets. The first poems were written in Panama; most of the book is set in Maine on Peaks Island. People get to know each other on a small island. The poems are intimate and vivid, conveying between the lines a positive and healing acceptance of reality. "Sans Fin" (without end, forever) is titled in honor of Alberto Giacometti and "Paris Sans Fin," lithographs of Paris scenes that Giacometti produced during 1957-62. The author says, "I work similarly, from the outside in, finding in the act of description, celebration and an opening without end."

Harry is well born, well educated, determined to outdo his father. Charley is a local hero, a natural athlete, good natured, and fiercely independent. They join forces in a drug buy and are busted on the Maine coast. Charley runs; Harry games the system, using his family's money and connections. Their struggle is inevitable and compelling.

Maine, Seattle, Hawaii, and India are the settings for these humorous and gallant stories of late awakenings, integrity, and persistence. "The line across her eyebrows and tapering along her jaw was right. He'd left out a lot, but that didn't matter. If what was there was true enough, you knew the rest--like a Michelangelo shoulder emerging from stone."

Joe Burke is handsome, capable, getting a little gray at the temples. Divorce has left him wondering what's next. He throws a few belongings in his truck and leaves town to find out, a search that takes him from Maine to Hawaii. A joyful, powerful, book about sex, love, art, and finding one's teachers.

A story of first love and discovery in Woodstock, N.Y. during the early sixties. Patrick, an army brat, and Willow, a musician from a west coast academic family, drift separately into town and are attracted to each other in spite of their differences. It was an exciting time; America was bursting free. The cast of characters includes Bob Dylan and Joe Burke, of "Joe Burke's Last Stand," Wetterau's first novel. The writing is sunny and clear, believable from the first page. The author has written,"I'm not Joe Burke, but I was there."

A solitary man in a diner on the coast of Maine. A tall beautiful stranger. A whip. A bronze heart. Hawaii. The Northwest ... How far will he go to face the truth about himself? ... This is a story about borders: between sex and love, between life and death.

Many years ago, my grandmother brought back from the Woodstock library, "Zen In The Art Of Archery" by Eugen Herrigel. Miraculously, a book written by a stranger defined the road I wanted to travel. These poems are recent stops along the way--mostly in Hawaii, Maine, and India. Each is an effort to see more clearly, to share a local truth, to realize the freedom that arises from understanding. JMW