The poems in this volume were selected by the poet in 1978 from his first three books—A Run of Jacks, Death of the Kapowsin Tavern, and Good Luck in Cracked Italian—and from his three more recent books, The Lady in Kicking Horse Reservoir, What Thou Lovest Well Remains American, and 31 Letters and 13 Dreams.

The result easily demonstrated, then as now, the massive achievement of the writer whom Carolyn Kizer called "one of the most passionate, energetic, and honest poets living."