Dr. Michael Creagan's second book is no less satisfying than the first. Animals and Other Poems, New and Selected includes favorites from True Love Stories and Other Poems, and new works, some never published. A quirky collection, this book spans emotions of sadness, love, and the poet's naughty sense of humor. The Phildelphia Inquirer says of Creagan's work: The practice of medicine has given Creagan the poet a way of looking at things, a dispassionate, clinical way that reinforces sentiment, but never slips into sentimentality-though it might slip into rage were it not for a protective coating of mordant humor. And always in the shadows is an almost unbearable tenderness. "Road Kill" tells of seeing a rabbit sitting by his dead friend, the poem ends: You have no words to understand what death is, no words to ease your sadness, to console, to mourn or pray, or tell your friend farewell. I hope you made it safely home last night and woke this morning in the warm sunlight. This morning, at my table under the trees, because you have no words, I've written these. In fact, this book might seem a grim chronicle of death, divorce and loneliness were it not for the repeated flashes of fresh and dazzling imagery. Such as: I imagine the sky as the interior of a bell where the moon swings back and forth with the rhythm of a heart ... Each time the bell is struck, the world is created again, but there is no sound at all. Poetry lovers, regular humans, and animal owners will love this fine collection of words.