"In deft, quiet language, National Book Award finalist Shapiro . . . recalls the past and how it sometimes hurts. . . . Capturing what many of his readers face, Shapiro . . . has his moment of triumph and honor."

Library Journal

“Shapiro’s wonderful and deft volume opens new possibilities for the public and private poem. From the ‘sugar high’ of an astronaut’s step on television, to the ‘sleep and terror’ of a lost decade of youth, to the wrenching deathbed images of a parent, this book has all the music of public elegy and all the intimacy of a private soliloquy. These moving and powerfully crafted poems make us participants, not spectators. They draw us into deeper understandings of our own losses and give us a language for what often seems beyond speech.”

Eavan Boland, author of A Woman Without a Country