An intense emotional exploration awaits you in A Famine of Tears. In it current cultural trends meet Modernism, Romanticism, the Renaissance, and Classicism, with Ric Couchman's Caribbean upbringing and his exposure to Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism providing added flavor. This book of poetry holds nothing back. It is an unrestrained, a candid, and a raw exposition of our humanity. It makes it palpable, putting the spotlight on our fears, our prejudices, our weaknesses, our strengths, our desires, our failures, and our triumphs. And while the rawness of our humanity is laid bare in this book, it is our humanity that is celebrated. You will not fail to notice the empathy and compassion that make up the book's undercurrent. Ric Couchman's background in literature and philosophy also informs this work, but that background does not get in the way of his poems' simplicity and of their appeal to the average reader. Not to be overlooked are the photo images that accompany most of the poems in A Famine of Tears, and this is where it categorically parts company with other books of poetry. The photo images (from the cover to the interior) are Ric Couchman's own creation. They are no mere addenda but are themselves an essential part of his overall creative process and, as such, should be given due consideration. They, like the poems in his book, speak eloquently, lending their voices to the voices of the poems they complement.