His writing life began inauspiciously in Theodore Roethke's poetry seminar at the University of Washington.
Haag recalled handing his teacher a poem and Roethke's reading "as far as the fourth line, which he slashed away with a great green stroke" from his fountain pen.
[6] The poems are mostly metaphysical meditations on the curiosities of marine biology, bringing the sea cucumber, queen conch, and others to light.
Mariners in their ships he treats with searching, Roethke-like precision and quirky scientific observation.
The volume shows his life's work as he moved from an early formalism to open forms.