Janet, you need to get Catherine's book. The doorman poem (which isn't in the book) is not a fluke. There are tons of others as good. You've now met Sophia, but in the book you get to meet her first in anticipation, then on a Petri dish, then as a newborn, etc. There are also many other powerful poems of a less personal nature.
Rose, I'm not sure it makes me want to meet the doorman any more than the Bottlebrush poem makes me want to meet the cat in question. I certainly get a vivid picture of the doorman, who is much like doormen I have known (who ignored me for years until I had a child), but it's filtered through the speaker's reflections and regret at never having appreciated the doorman's role in their lives. The poem engages throughout, but really packs its wallop with the final devastating line.
PS-- By the way, the Bottlebrush poem should have divisions between the quatrains (Tim presented it above without the white spaces).
[This message has been edited by Roger Slater (edited November 06, 2008).]
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