After two well-received novels, Roger DeBlanck's third book, Empire of the Mind, is an extraordinary collection of his selected poems. Written over the span of nearly twenty-five years, these poems evoke the same type of conscientious awareness, vivid imagery, and emotional impact that are trademarks of his fiction. In the Preface to this book, DeBlanck expresses his reverence for literature and how he credits poetry with making him a writer. Whether addressing tragedies throughout history or meditating on the revitalizing forces of nature, the common thread in each poem is a universal vision of humanity and what it means to be alive and to find peace and sanctity in life. Whether dazzling with joy or reflective with sorrow, the poems yearn for an ideal world. With grace and intelligence, DeBlanck's work can feel hypnotic with its richness and resonance of language, the compactness and precision of his phrasings, and the dreamlike hopefulness for what is beyond this world. Furthermore, he is also a very grateful poet. A number of his pieces are composed in homage to literary figures he admires: Albert Camus, Jorge Luis Borges, and Toni Morrison. The aim of the poems is often compassion, forgiveness, and understanding. Even when the subject matter is haunting in its visceral descriptions, we feel empowered with the need to remember the past as an ongoing force for change. What we ultimately have in Empire of the Mind is an indelible, heartfelt collection of poems from a writer exhibiting the range of his imaginative powers.