'Islands of Experience' is an exceptional collection of poetry. It carries a punch that all readers will feel, yet its power is tempered by subtlety and delicacy of language that will make readers linger over each line. The words themselves are simple, yet deep enough to challenge the profound thinker. They render to simple things an awe-inspiring grandeur and reduce the enormous to almost nothing. Many of these poems deal with Alaskan scenes. Here is an excerpt from Snowbound: Softly, silently, stealthily now, the soft snow steals away the freedom of travel the sourdough knew on the trails of the summer day. Warm in his cabin, snug in the snow, it's here that peace is found. It's here that the cares of the world are gone. Who cares if he is snowbound? Looking back on a full and varied life, Dean Nichols casts a discerning eye on the tangibles and intangibles of existence. In this except from The End? he touches upon one of life's crucial questions: Ah, so 'tis happiness you seek, my friend; is that your goal? Take care, lest on its placid sea you strike a shoal that pinions you and holds you fast, so that for you there is no future, only past. Vital, energetic, yet serene, Dean Nichols' poems challenge the reader to look around him and within him. The author comments, I would not ask you to share with me the mainland of my life; for who has half a century to spare? But I invite you to share with me a few of these islands of experience and through them catch a glimpse of an untraveled world.