Description: These poems exhibit the range of Sam Hamill's celebrated practice and vision, from philosophical and discursive elements to the intensely lyrical, from his continuing poems of praise (and elegies) for fellow poets to the clear influence of the Zen classics he has so notably translated.
Review Quotes: "What I like about Sam Hamill's poetry is its not being in the least laidback and cool. In it, tears, laughter, anger, and sorrow contend, all set forth with passionate candor. Hamill's deep intimacy with classical literature of the West and the Orient gives many of his poems a graceful concision--as in the second part of his book, 'Lessons from Thieves.' 'My poetry will very likely die with me, ' the poet declares; but that isn't going to happen if Ezra Pound was right and 'In poetry, only emotion endures.'"
--X. J. Kennedy