I'm glad someone posted about the first and last poemthing; does it work? Sure, to an extent, in the same way that if you are submitting to a journal, you want the best poem first, or you are putting together a CD, you generally want to be -- if not the "hit" - thoe most immediately "catchy" piece first

unless of course you are a classical musician or a project based poet, in which case the project starts where it starts

but what about those emergent patterns, those scary changes in voice and theme -- those sticky problems that come from writing _over time_ -- ??