The poems in Tales of an Anxious Hiker grew out of a year-long hiking challenge and a need for an acceptable place to throw a civilized tantrum in the wake of loss. Grief, fear, tacos, Jeff Daniels, the purpose of mosquitoes, 70% humidity - nothing is off-limits as the poems wind their way through the forests and sand dunes of Michigan (with brief visits to Ohio and Arizona). Nature - at both its finest and most misery-inducing - is on full display here. And if Nature is worried about what people will think of it, then maybe Nature should have behaved better.