Summary

“Making a Chair,” the first poem in the book, compares the act of writing fiction to that of making a chair. The speaker is a writer who is preparing to write a novel. The speaker describes that the he did, in fact, construct the chair in the room he is in. He goes on to describe the steps that he took, such as using the screws and adjusting the armrests (this is not easy). A radio is playing in the room and an Orson Wells broadcast is playing on it. His character, Henry Lime, meets a woman and other characters, has sex with the woman and solves the mystery all within the time span of the program. The speaker ends the poem by stating that writing a book should come with directions, just like a chair. The writer explains that he will...