Heartland II

"Planning the book, I felt that one of its most important purposes would be to offer proof that what appears to many a colorless region is to some rich, complicated, thrilling. That, in short the Midwest is made up of the stuff of poetry. And once those living in it begin to see the details--cornfields, skyscrapers, small-town streets, whatever--with the help of their poets, they will find it not only possible to live with some measure of contentment among its particulars but even, miraculously, begin to love them and the poems they fill."--Introduction p. xxiii