Although the poems in this fifth book by Jacqueline Berger grapple with such subjects as sex, sorrow, and shame, there are also celebrations of delight and joy. Together they provide abundant insights about the past and present, as well as intriguing considerations of the future, "a ride that arrives // before we are ready to leave." With powerful emotional concision, she explores, unabashedly, what it means to live. Left at the Ruin is an exceptional collection. -Andrea Hollander