The present volume draws on nine book-length collections of Thomas’s poetry, and includes a generous selection of new poems.

Five of the collections are comprised of poems of geographic place, four of which are set primarily in Texas. His fifth “place” collection is set on the coast of Maine. The poems selected from his remaining collections range in subject matter from outlaw bikers to ekphrasis; from the avian world to an asylum for the criminally insane.

PIANO TUNER
The tools of his trade
are unassuming and relatively
primitive.  The stagehand
is his counterpart in drama.
 
In the shadows of architects,
for grand cathedrals of sonatas,
he lays the bricks.  Of pitch
and tone, he is master.
Even a concert pianist
steers clear of his ear.

The present volume draws on nine book-length collections of Thomas’s poetry, and includes a generous selection of new poems.

Five of the collections are comprised of poems of geographic place, four of which are set primarily in Texas. His fifth “place” collection is set on the coast of Maine. The poems selected from his remaining collections range in subject matter from outlaw bikers to ekphrasis; from the avian world to an asylum for the criminally insane.

PIANO TUNER
The tools of his trade
are unassuming and relatively
primitive.  The stagehand
is his counterpart in drama.
 
In the shadows of architects,
for grand cathedrals of sonatas,
he lays the bricks.  Of pitch
and tone, he is master.
Even a concert pianist
steers clear of his ear.

The present volume draws on nine book-length collections of Thomas’s poetry, and includes a generous selection of new poems.

Five of the collections are comprised of poems of geographic place, four of which are set primarily in Texas. His fifth “place” collection is set on the coast of Maine. The poems selected from his remaining collections range in subject matter from outlaw bikers to ekphrasis; from the avian world to an asylum for the criminally insane.

PIANO TUNER
The tools of his trade
are unassuming and relatively
primitive.  The stagehand
is his counterpart in drama.
 
In the shadows of architects,
for grand cathedrals of sonatas,
he lays the bricks.  Of pitch
and tone, he is master.
Even a concert pianist
steers clear of his ear.