This collection of poems from Jim Brown's life-long engagement with language is full of surprises and vivid moments. Some of the poems move downward and inward along faint trails--seen or imagined--toward "moon-abetted mystery". Some are tough-minded reality checks. Others are romps amid playful language. Throughout, he reminds us that keen attention and exact language are the best snares humans have for inspiration and insight. (Charles Goodrich, writer/poet,gardener, author of Insects of South Corvallis, The Practice of Home, and Going to Seed: Dispatches from the Garden.)