Gehrke uses language gracefully, and a number of the poems are beautifully written. However, for me, they just didn't hold a power over and beyond the technicalities of language. They weren't poems that truly touched me, with very few exceptions, and seemed more concerned with technicality and beauty of language than anything else. I suppose, in the end, I felt they were rather too clean, too neat, and too self-consciously poems. They were sometimes a bit didactic, and where there were characters...well, I just didn't believe in them. They felt too formed, too much created solely for the author's messages and technical flourishes. It's a graceful book, but not one I'd recommend to poetry lovers in general. ( )