[The kindness of strangers, a] grab bag, as opposed to collection, might be readable provided you were "Allen," "Tom," or another of the author's friends whose names are tossed around in it: then you might know whom and what Whalen is talking about, and be in on the many arcane references and Oriental words he uses. The connections attempted in these poems often do not work unless the reader has access to the brain that originated them, and the attempts at a description of "objective reality" (the poet would probably reject the phrase) are often merely lists of objects, in the manner of, say, Gary Snyder at his worst. The late Frank O'Hara raises his head here as well, in fragments that try to catch the aura of a moment by listing its trivia. The kindness of strangers seems to have been written exclusively for the poet's friends...