This is cynical, but typical of Norris' penchant for stating things in an outrageous way in his debate with himself. he second topic, the search for unity, was handled metaphorically in Vegetables. Here Norris approaches it in a more direct manner. Several poems exhibit a need to reach out, coupled with feelings of emptiness or restlessness. "In The Supermarket" (43-45) tells of falling in love with a "pig-tailed beauty" (93) while shopping. But he fails to make contact and is left with a comic parody of romantic despair brought on by unrequited love: "All the way home/I long for her company at dinner" (45). n "Europe" (65-66) he seeks unsuccessfully to fill the emptiness with high culture: "In the Tate I encounter/Blake's illustrations.../There aren't enough/of them" (66). This persona of the culturally bankrupt North American who travels to other cultures to find fulfilment and fails becomes an important feature of two books in the "Report" project: The Better Part of Heaven(1984) and Islands(1986). inally, in "Walking Around" (69-70) he uncovers a life of complete spiritual emptiness I don't want to continue being a root in the darkness, wavering, extended, sleepily shivering going down to the moist entrails of the earth, absorbing and thinking, eating everyday. (69) he conflicts are unresolved, but that irresolution is a part of Norris' attraction as a poet. He is wise enough to avoid the simple solutions and optimistic enough to believe that there will be time enough to work on the problem.