Ann Howells calls her collection, Texas Poems, but you don't have to be a Texan, or even like Texas, to experience the wonder of these tiny word mechanisms she has created. You can't help but run through these poems like you would a field of bluebonnets in her beloved state. But you would immediately double back and say, "What was that?" Every single one of these small wonders has a tonal warmth that produces a crystal clear snapshot of her perceptions. Susan Mitchell says, "The world is wily and doesn't want to be caught." Ann Howells has done what all writers want to do: She has not only caught her world, she has found the essence of it and has rendered it into words.