A selection from fifty years of Merrill Gilfillan's lyrical and vivid poetry. Merrill Gilfillan's Three Roans in the Shallows, One of Them Blue: Selected Poems draws from more than a dozen volumes since his first book appeared in 1970, concluding with three short "poetic diaries" in the tradition of Japanese haibun. Wistful, joyful, resonant with "Season through place, / Place in season, in place," the hundred various poems—landscapes, epistles, "tunes meant for whistling"—are propelled throughout by affinity, reflection, and requital.

I think of you

as the tarts come out

of the oven—Ohio butternuts

from Ohio butternut

trees—and last summer's

ash seeds rattle

in the wind beyond

the window: small

bat-of-the-eye pleasures

of winter. Deep. Distilled.