Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences

The bestselling author of the Earthsea trilogy, The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed presents a collection of short stories and poems that takes the reader into a magical, whimsical world where the line between human and animal is quite different from our world. Winner of the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.
Contents:
“Come into animal presence / Denise Levertov —
Buffalo gals, won’t you come out tonight —
Three rock poems: Basalt –Flints —
Mt. St. Helens/ Omphalos —
Mazes —
Wife’s stories —
Five vegetable poems —
Torrey pines reserve —
Lewis and Clarke and after —
West Texas —
Xmas over —
Crown of Laurel —
Direction of the road —
Vaster than empires and more slow —
Seven bird and beast poems —
What is going on in the Oaks —
For Ted —
Found poem —
Totem —
Winter downs —
Man eater–
Sleeping out —
White donkey —
Horse camp —
Four cat poems —
Tabby Lorenzo —
Black Leonard in negative space —
Conversation with a silence —
For Leonard, Darko, and Burton Watson —
Schrodinger’s cat —
“Author of the Acacia seeds” and other extracts from the journal of the journal of the association of Therolinguistics —
May’s lion —
Eighth elegy, from “Duino elegies” of R.M. Rilke —
She unnames them.

“A spirited, gracefully polemical introduction and the final story, “She Unnames Them”, frame this collection of fiction and poetry, placing it in a natural but unsentimental light. These are not really “talking animal” stories: they are about human apprehension of natural creation (including rocks and plants) and the relations this apprehension governs; or, how communication makes communities. Seven of ten stories and seven of 19 poems having already been published, while a couple of pieces read like working drafts. Among the best pieces is the title story; like many of the others, it works its effect through a reversal of the usual (human) point of view.”–Library Journal.