Vocation is a poetry collection that examines the many ways of viewing the work of a life and all that contributes to it. The book's first section, "The Voices," evokes the various individuals whose lives and voices resonate with the narrator and contribute to his identity. The influence of parents and grandparents, as well as locations and objects associated with them, dominate the initial portion of the book. The second section, "The Callings," examines vocations or directions in life as growing, for better or worse, out of external influences or internal compulsions. Whether we are "called" to a life of writing, photography, medicine, or police work, we may find that there are sacrifices, as well as satisfactions, that accompany our choices. The volume's third section, "The Work," continues to address specific vocations but deepens into a consideration of attitudes that may grow out of our work. Several of the poems here bring up issues in teaching and learning, often drawn from the poet's own life in the classroom or at his writing desk. Others are more tangential to these pursuits but connect metaphorically with them. The book's final section, "The Path," contains several poems about travel that imply a kind of searching that may supersede the simple quest for new experience and may take us inward even as we launch ourselves into unfamiliar territory. Sometimes there are spiritual, if not religious, elements in our experiments toward making our way in life and work. The poems in Vocation display a variety of forms, including ekphrastic verse, in which the writer turns to paintings or photographs that in some way reflect his experience.
