In poetry as in art, the best work shows us the extraordinary within the ordinary. This powerful new voice takes that truth one step further. She releases from our everyday lives waves of hidden longing, forgotten joys, and the simple pleasure of seeing the familiar transformed into something new. Dania Al Husseini's gift is both a fresh breeze and a beam of light. The Leaf That Was Afraid to Fall gives us insight into what happens when we resist change. In A Lament, an object we encounter every day is used as a surprising mirror for our own life struggles. As a Queen is simply a lush look at beauty: "Whisper secrets into dandelions And blow them out to sea." The selected poems and stories in this collection share another trait of great art: What we take from them reveals as much about ourselves as about the artist. Yet they are also elusive, and that, too, is their strength. These poems and stories will be unique to each reader who lets word and image bloom into meaning. Al Husseini's stories like Out of Tune and The Shovel That Wept also start out as simple scenes or memories that move us- in just a few pages-through a range of emotions. Overall, this unique collection offers those surprising twists in the path that open both heart and mind.