After her near-fatal accident, chronicled in her remarkable memoir, Inside the Halo and Beyond, Maxine Kumin feared that poetry might have "deserted" her. This luminous, reflective collection proves her wrong, and it is a special cause for celebration. Themes of loyalty, longevity, and recovery appear here, and in a series of poems Kumin finds inspiration in addressing other poets, especially the eminent dead: "Skinnydipping with Wordsworth," "Imagining...

Original poetry and art combine to make us marvel at the talent of various animals, from the snail to the giraffe, to the mastodon of long ago.

Gathered from nine collections representing three decades of work, these poems - newly available in a rich and varied volume celebrate the growth of a major artist. Since the publication of her first book of poetry, Halfway, Maxine Kumin has been powerfully and fruitfully engaged in the "stuff of life that matters": family, friendship, the bond between the human and natural world, and the themes of loss and survival.