Celebrated poet Micheal O'Siadhail knows desire, love, trust, and wonder. He also intimately knows sorrow, suffering, tragedy, and loss. His life and his poetry have always yearned for meaning and virtue despite, and in the midst of, life's pain.

This collection of poems, spanning four decades and drawing upon thirteen smaller collections, works both head and heart toward a mature and seasoned wisdom. The poems are not only richly personal, plumbing the depths of marriage, friendship, vocation, and grief, but they also engage with what matters most in culture and society--music, language, city life, and the dynamics of history.

O'Siadhail's roots may be deeply Irish, but his poetry speaks for and to all.