To Live on this Earth

This second collection of Waldman’s poems deeply resonate in their coverage of his Alaskan experience. From sexy poems (“Moonshine”) to elegies (“John’s Place”) to storytelling (“The Quilt”) to political poems (“A Nation that Grows, Grows, Grows”) to humorous poems (“A Week in Eek”) to a final statement in “To Live on This Earth,” Waldman creates a deeper understanding through the appearance of simplicity. His Alaskan figures become all of us in extreme conditions; his survival mentality becomes a higher morality of purpose.