The poems in Produce Wagon explore the vast and varied circumstances of the human experience. Roy Scheele delves into his love for his wife in “Remembrances,” the opening poem from his first chapbook, and “Driving after Dark”; his fascination with the natural world in poems such as “How the Fox Got Away” and “Late Autumn Woods”; his appreciation of his family in “A Kitchen Memory” and “The Long Rise”; and his fondness for stories in “The Carny Circuit” and “In the Clear.” In these and the other poems in the collection, Scheele uses a variety of traditional verse forms as well as free verse and syllabics, carefully fitting the form of each poem to his subject matter.
Though most of the poems are set in Nebraska and neighboring states, there is a universality to the subjects Scheele addresses. In these poems anywhere is everywhere.
Acknowledgments
Introduction by Ted Kooser
From Accompanied, 1974
Remembrances
The Welcome Mat
Flowering Crab
At Brim on the Little Blue
Rock Openings
A Metaphor for the Evening Star
The Gap in the Cedar
From Noticing, 1979
Noticing
A Kitchen Memory
Fishing Blue Creek
Poppies
August
Missing You
What Swept by on a Winter Morning
How the Fox Got Away
From The Sea-Ocean, 1981
The Sea-Ocean
Spring Greens
Nebraska U.S. 20
The Falls
Focal Point
A Turn in the Weather
Winter Onions
Remembering Anna
Grandpa Mac
From Pointing Out the Sky, 1985
Making Change
Saturday Mornings in the Radio Years
The Catch
The Farm in Arkansas
Uncle Lou
Sandhill Cranes
Crossing the Field
At the Drought’s Height
Cisterns
Re-Creation
A Walk Round the Monastery Farm
Changing the Flowers
A Reverence
Hoping for Raspberries
Stairway
Ansel Adams: Aspens, New Mexico, 1958
Lichens
A Look Around
Mid-August in the Mountains
Lightning Bugs
Floating on My Back in the Late Afternoon
From The Voice We Call Human, 1991
Next Morning
A Hot Afternoon with Nothing to Do
Clare’s Last Poem
Antique Wrenhouse
Salt Valley Grange
Snowfence in Late April
Vietnam Memorial
Pallbearing
Heron Feeding in Rain
Reins
From To See How It Tallies, 1995
Driving after Dark
Lilac Storm
Ritual
Strayed
Witness
In Minnesota
Passage
Reflection
To See How It Tallies
Vigil
From Short Suite, 1997
Winter Cloud Cover
Diviner
Ripeness Is All, Is All
October Retort
Crowbar
Deep Autumn
First Bite
The Hunter, Home
From From the Ground Up, 2000
At Summer’s Height, in Hungary
January Primrose
First Sighting
Reckoning
Back through California
Planting a Dogwood
Tent Light
From the Ground Up
Black
Form
From A Far Allegiance, 2010
Gong
Fishheads
X-Ray Fitting
The Squarefold
A Day at the Dentist’s
Produce Wagon
In the Near Distance
Horse Creek Road
Certificate
The Carny Circuit
Across the Sandhills
A Freshening
Woman Feeding Chickens
Upriver
Laid Down at Mesa Verde
West of Vegas
Under Magnification
The Water Meadows, Winchester
Near Dorchester, in Dorset, from the Train
O’Keeffe’s Barn with Snow
From The Sledders, 2016
Simple Gesture
Discovering Gravity
The Sledders
In Possession
Toward Evening
Therefore
Laughter
Similitude
For Instance
Watching You Open Your New, Many-Hued Umbrella
The Earth Coming Green Again: Uncollected Poems
The Earth Coming Green Again
A Counterpoise
The Sparrow’s Way
Dakota Burial
Househunting
In Blowing Snow
The Hadderways
Late Autumn Woods
Noodler
After Things
Dancer
Cover of Darkness
New Poems
Wright Morris: Clothing on Hooks, The Home Place
Dale Nichols: Morning Chore
Lunching with Friends
Salon Noir, Niaux
In the Clear
Climbing Rose
Fern
The Long Rise
Flat Water
Four Observations
The Sign Said
Grounders
Seventh-Grade Art
Remember Me
Kingfisher
Lowbush Clusters
At the Station
