Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom’s poet wades in with a delightful volume of  verse. Continuing his themes of contrast (there’s an eponymous poem) between youth and age, rural and urban, ambition and contentment, Budbill returns again and again to his woods, his work putting in the winter’s woodpile, his wood stove, and his contentment.  Overarching all of this is his awareness of aging and the mortality looming.  Consistent with that is an emphasis on October and November—stark, bare, cold, wet—and the warmth and pleasure of the indoors in winter–stove, quilts, tea, quiet solitude.