These fifty-four poems, spanning four decades, depict a landscape at once recognizably mundane and grotesquely surreal. Grass's spirited humor and linguistic creativity transcend the cant of political poetry. The German originals face the translation.

Contents:

• Flag of Poland
• Lament on Black Ice
• Prophets' Fare
• Quarrel
• Construction Work
• V for Volant Bird
• Nursery Rhyme
• The Scarecrows
• Magical Exercise with the Brides of Christ
• Racine Has His Coat of Arms Altered
• Poultry in the Central Cemetery
• The Curtain Sermon
• Between Marathon and Athens
• On White Paper
• The Great Rubblewoman Speaks
• Yes
• Writing
• Ivy - The Growth Rate of Immortality
• Double Portrait
• The Firstborn
• Tour de France
• Sunday Morning
• Decadence
• The Whip
• United Germany Festival, March
• Love Tested
• But Still
• Your Ear
• As Though without Reason
• Scenic Madrigal
• Comforted
• Demeter
• How I See Myself
• At the End
• Too Much
• Both
• The Lie
• Kinds of Death
• Coffin Nails
• My Shoe
• Our Litter Which
• Leave-taking (from Die Rattin, 1986)
• What's Ours
• Novemberland
• Late Sunflowers
• All Souls
• Gale Warning
• Before the First Sunday in Advent
• Unplanned
• Persistent Rain
• The Fortress Grows
• Defoliated
• After Brief Illness
• In Clear Perspective
• Who's Coming?