Bill Edmondson's long-awaited first book is a tour de force of distinctive, finely-honed poetic skills and a world view brutally honest yet ultimately hopeful. In lines carved like phrases from a jazz score, Edmondson's poetry travels a sinewy geography-the Mississippi River, Molokai, New Orleans, San Francisco's Tenderloin-and the human landscape as well, all sides of it, behavior and spirit. This book is a master work, its poems haunting and unforgettable.