In My Sideways Heart, with consummate poetic skill, Brown explores the nuances of human relationships, and he does so with a courage and emotional honesty rare in contemporary American poetry. Are the poems in this collection love poems? Absolutely, but love poems skillfully absent the banal excesses of sentimentality. Brown writes with the confidence and directness of an experienced poet, and his seemingly simple diction belies the hard-earned wisdom stirring deep beneath the surface of his art. --Larry D. Thomas, 2008 Texas Poet Laureate