I was introduced to Dickey when I was a 20 year old college student. Although he was difficult for me then, I have never forgotten my first reading of "The Heaven of Animals". It just blew me away, like how Emily Dickinson said how you know it's poetry when it blows off the top of your head. I've read all of his work now, including the novels, and must say he was one of our greatest American writers.
Just now I picked up this book and read "The Sprinter at Forty".

"And between the dark houses where men,/Grown suddenly light with amazement,/Cry out for their youth among nightmares/Of debt, and turn to their women./Like a choir, something rises about me..."

I understood the poem when I was in my 20s, but now in my 50s, I FEEL it within all of me.

It is rather late, and I should be asleep, but I think I'll read some more of this wonderful book to enhance my dreams. ( )