XPath, XSL: How to select all nodes, not just elements, when xsl:param is a node-set?

Question

In an XSL recursion, this

<xsl:with-param name="items" select="$items[position() > 1]

would normally work to recurse with all nodes but the first. But it only works if the nodes are elements. If they are a mix of element and text nodes, the recursion fails, since, for example, $items[3] returns the third element node, not the third node, regardless whether text or element.

So the expression sets the new $items to just the element nodes in the old $items. The text nodes are lost.