David-Glen Smith's Variations on a Theme of Desire is equal parts philosophical text, archeological exploration, fairy tale, and map of human memory. It's no surprise a book of such grand scope sees saints of music, poetry, and faith appear in its pages. These are poems of jazz and crow, of the long dead and the just living, of the topography of a dreamscape built from the bones of those who walk, briefly or lingering, across our lives. But perhaps more than anything, this book is a guide written by a poet to his young son, something the boy can tuck away so that one day, when he's ready and capable of understanding, he can read and know the map of his father's heart. How, no matter the songs that play, the lyrics just underneath the melodies say, "Remember, son, in all aspects of this fragmented world-I will never leave you." -Bryan Borland, author of Less Fortunate Pirates