These poems often point the reader down instead of up. Instead of looking up toward some abstract religious hope, the poems take hold of everyday life and squeeze the marrow out of it. They don't tell pretentious, obscure stories; they tell the Beauty and the Beast, a story everyone knows, but with its associations reversed. This reversal of expectation makes normal life into a reservoir of new meaning, because one can change their point of view and see life a brand new way.
The lyrical quality of these poems adds a layer of meaning to the text, because there is a duality present. On the one hand, the poet is passive. This poet isn't working to arrange a meaningful life for himself. Rather, he is constructing something in his point of view. He seeks a deeper appreciation for the life he is being presented. This duality of activeness and passiveness is present in the treatment of symbolic objects. One such object might be the can of peaches. This everyday item is ironically awaiting the invention of a can-opener to crack it open, a constructed point of view on an everyday item.
Spirituality is at the center of the poetry, but not in an open way. The poems are furtive and desirous. They are playful, sometimes poignant, and often languishing, but if the poems are mirrors, then the poet they reflect is someone who doesn't profess loud religious beliefs, and therefore someone who sees religious meaning in every moment, because there is a constant search for that religious meaning. The poet is a sad voice who is consoled only by beauty.
