There are two poetic attitudes towards the world: one is complete self-disclosure and dedication, and the second is, as it were, the objectification of this dedication, the introduction of one's own feeling into the frame of a certain poetic picture that exists outside the poet. This latter - objectification - is akin to some irony, detachment from the depicted in verses and from the verses themselves. In the early poems of Alexander Kushner, such a slight ironic attitude to his topic is constantly present. It, of course, is not as sharp as in Nikolai Zabolotsky's "Columns," but it still exists. "Carafe," "Drawing," "Above the microscope," "Checkers" - the poet chooses these topics as if in order to learn to see the world, as a mature artist learns on still lifes.