As you savor this compelling collection, take in the shifting light, the changing timbre and texture of language as we journey by poem from Kazakhstan's "climate and clamor," as Jeff Fearnside writes, to the shaded, emerald fertility of western Oregon. Notice how these landscapes, from arid and rowdy to ripening and rooted, from Old World to New, are the perfect backdrops for celebrating the evolution of Fearnside's love for his life partner and wife. In verses that lightly graze the page or stake a bigger claim, Fearnside again and again reminds us what love is, whether for a landscape or a person, and of this we can always use reminding.

-Ellen Waterston, Oregon Poet Laureate