Meditation at Lagunitas

Meditation at Lagunitas
by Robert Hass
pg.463

The tone of this poem is very interesting. The speaker has a sort of lecturer or philosopher type of presense about him. It is conversational in a way, because of it's easily understood vocabulary and sentense structure. However, it can also be seen as unconversational because he does not allow for any response by the reader (as in a conversation); he is purely lecturing.
Also, some of his comparisons I felt were rather unique. Such as, "I felt a violent wonder at her presence / like a thirst for salt". (He is speaking about the girl he made love to once in the past.) Comparing the feelings he is getting from her presense to a thirst for salt is something I have never heard before. A thirst for salt implys a thirst for flavor, or something to make the situation in question more interesting to experience (or eat). I am unsure of whether or not he is regarding himself as needing more "salt", or his lover as needing more "salt"; it is rather ambiguous. Either he is thinking he himself is boring and needs more flavor, or his lover has become boring and needs to add some excitement to her routine.