Addressing the reader directly, he asserts "All I want to do is talk to you/about the things that should matter/to the both of us" (45). hat, then, is the poet? The poet is the voice of the universe. That which inspires creation propagates life. ..................................... The poem is a heart opening dispersing light, singing light. ("The Poet is the Voice of the Universe" 56) Whirlwindsshows Norris on an emotional high. He has found himself as a poet, he has found a mission for poetry. But the debate is not over; with Norris every crest is followed by a trough. he Better Part of Heaven (1984) is the fifth "Report" book and the first of two about South Pacific travel. The other is Islands(1986). Thanks to a Canada Council grant, Norris was able to spend just over 5 months visiting a variety of South Pacific Islands. The resulting book s a mixture of prose journal entries and poems about the places and people he encounters. It is a disaster. Even Norris senses that something is not right, telling Bruce Meyer that " I basically wind up chastising art for not being life" (96). A futile exercise. he prose accounts are boring and largely pointless. Whether he likes it or not, Norris is an academic poet. He will never, I think, yodel "Get your ass out of my beer" convincingly.