UNDER THE GREEN WILLOW

Etchings by Janina Domanska, overlaid with morning yellow and May green, transcribe what the sun tells, ""a place I know where ducks and ducklings, turtles, trout, catfish with whiskers, and young eels, all crowd together in the water under a willow tree waiting for crumbs."" It is simple, measured, majestic. . . then quick-stepping, fractious: ""The ducks kick the turtles out of the way, the catfish bite the ducks' toes, the trout whisk a crumb away before the others see it, the little eels try to take the food out of the turtles' horny beaks."" At the last, against a crisscross of waterside and underwater patterns, are the duck and duckling, calm ""in the clear water, under the green willow."" Rhythmically told, dynamically designed, illustrated with the classical economy of a Bewick or Brooke.