Poetry. Reading the poems of this moving book is like listening to the wind clink bare branches together. This is a book that walks the line between meditation and wonder and seems to be at home in that in-between state. Almost nothing escapes the poet's study, from the glow of morning light to a child mouthing her first words. Even as the poems observe the world with intimacy, there is a further wonder this book declares: that we have the intimacy of language to articulate our belonging. One task for the poet is to summon the language necessary to persuade us that we do indeed belong to the world, despite our uncertainties and suffering. This book, and the mind behind it, ably meets that task with perhaps the most solemn human perspective there is--affection.--Maurice Manning