Description

This collection of poems, published in 2005, is set primarily in Crocker Township. At the time most of the poems were written, Crocker Township was a largely rural area north of Des Moines in Polk County, Iowa. The most prominent geographical feature of this area is Saylorville Lake, a federal impoundment operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. At “normal” pool, the elevation of Saylorville Lake is 836 feet above sea level, the tailwater area below the dam ranges between 791 and 798 feet, and from the Sycamore Boat Ramp south of the dam to the northern boundary of the Federal Reservation, the entire Saylorville complex plus Big Creek Lake near Polk City is ten miles long. Under abnormal conditions, like the floods of 1993 and 1998, Saylorville and the Des Moines River, despite the intentions of the Corps, become destroyers. 

Even though Crossing Crocker Township has a clear geographical center, the poems wander over a wider area, from Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in Nashville, Tennessee to Fall River Pass in Colorado, from the teachings of Zen Master Joshu to the slow wing beats of a thousand pelicans. 

Poems aside, the book Crossing Crocker Township is a work of art by itself, printed by Clarence Wolfshohl in his shop in the Timber outside Fulton, Missouri. The cover photo is by Nicholas Tremmel.