Book excerpt: Poetry. In 1961 Jack Spicer wrote: "It is not unfair to say that a city is a collection of humans. Human beings. In their municipal trust they sit together in cities. They talk together in cities. They form groups. Even when they do not form groups they sit alone together in cities." In 2004 Stephanie Young was given her assignment: to convene a collection of writing by Bay Area poets. The long-anticipated results are in, all 432 pages of them. A precedent-breaking anthology, BAY POETICS goes to the outer limits of "local" and "poetry," ranging as it does from Napa Valley to Santa Cruz and including poems, essays, lists, short fiction, walking tour reports, manifestoes and all points in between. An experiment in 21st century landscape portraiture you won't want to miss.