Poetry. "Ode to certain interstates," the thirteen-part poem of this collection, was inspired by the year poet Howard W. Robertson worked as a long-haul truck driver in the American West and British Columbia. In between pauses at truck stops and rest areas, the author meditates on (among other matters) Kant, the Kalapuyans, Basho, and the "best buffet in the West." The eight additional poems in the book, such as "Ode to this small stick" and "The transcendental laughter of Eleanor," use a refined intelligence to probe the daily intersections of the sacred and banal. Howard W. Robertson is a retired research librarian. In 2003, he was awarded the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize for Poetry.