After my second read through of this collection of poems, I love it more than ever. Bierds weaves together lyrical tales from historical characters both real and imagined (mostly from the 1800s. Common threads include various artists and philosophers and scientists, such as Charles Darwin (Charles and his family come up often).

As example here are a few of my favorite lines from "Hunter":
"

And could the uncle distinguish, his father is asking,
the drops of the storm from the drops
of the river? Just then with his face
half hidden, half blossoming?

And could Charles distinguish, there in the wing chair,
grief from the story of grief? Or fear? Or love
from the story of love? ..."

This is a wonderful book of poetry, one I would love to have on my shelf so that I could come back to it again and again. ( )