The Pill versus The Springhill Mine Disaster Summary

This collection of pithy and short poems seems strikingly autobiographical. It includes the poem from which the collection derives its name. The poet muses that when his girlfriend takes "the pill," she may be taking more lives than the Springhill Mine Disaster. In "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace," the poet dreams of a world where technology and nature are compatible, humans liberated from drudgery to reconnect with their true natures, a place "where we are free of our labors/and joined back to nature/returned to our mammal/brothers and sisters/and all watched over/by machines of loving grace." The poet sees a spiritual dimension in "The Winos on Potrero Hil," who "could almost/be exotic flowers/they drink so/quietly." In "Your Departure Versus the Hindenberg...