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There are some changes in punctuation, spelling, and italicization,
but I have preserved Stephens's idiosyncratic use of single quotation
marks. In a few poems I revised phrasing a little, or deleted a word or a
short passage. These revisions were based on an early manuscript (the
sonnets "The Other Runner" and "50 continued"), on revisions Ste-
phens penciled into his copy of Goodbye Matilija ("Dream Vision," "After-
words"), or on my judgment of what he would have welcomed ("The
Open World," "The Summer," "Elegy: The Old Man," "Tree Medita-
tion," "Third Deposition," "And the Fat One ...," "After-words," "Study
of Wild Oats #2," "The Clubman," "The White Boat," "Under Cricket
Music"). In making that diffi
cult judgment, and in other respects, I was
glad to have the counsel of John Wilson, John Ridland, Tim Stephens,
Robyn Bell, Bob Blaisdell, and Jace Turner.
I thank Dan Stephens as well, for his brotherly support.
A.A.S.