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[The Roof Rat Review.]

Thom Gunn, August Kleinzahler (editor). Selected Poems. Farrar, Strauss & Giroux-3pl, 2009 (Selected Poems 1950-1975, 1974). California rigor! It's possible! But this edition omits many great middle-period poems ("At the Centre", "Misanthropos").

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Texts and images copyright (C) 2022 Pauline Kerschen. Layout adapted from the Single A Tumblr theme by businessbullpen. The Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) has zygodactylic feet, leaving X-shaped tracks with ambiguous direction. The Pueblo and Hopi used the X symbol to mislead evil spirits. Border folklore in the early twentieth century held that a roadrunner would lead a lost traveler back to his path. In Mexico the roadrunner is known as paisano, countryman.