in 1961 his first book of poems, "a run of jacks", was published. soon after he took a creative writing teaching job at the university of montana. he later became the head of the creative writing program there. his wife returned to seattle in 1964; they divorced soon after. he published five more books of poetry, a memoir, a highly respected book on writing, and also a mystery novel. his posthumous book of collected poetry, "making certain it goes on", evinces that his poems are marked by crisp, gorgeous images of nature that often stand in contrast to his own depression, loneliness, and alcoholism. although almost always written in free verse, his poems have a strong sense of rhythm that often echoes iambic meters. he also wrote a large number of informal epistolary poems at a time when that form was unfashionable.