Rivers of urgent breath

It is my sincere desire that in writing these poems I have learned how better to hone the poetic voice, the speaking of the muse—or muses—without whom we as curtists would have no function. I think one thing that characterizes the poems in this book is an attention to sensual details, which, to me, are inextricably connected to who we are as humans. In essence, the spirit records experience through the details of the body's interactions. Hot rain puddling in the summer dirt, for instance, may transport us back to the occasion of that sense, as it did for me in the poem "Blues," and call forth a similar emotional response. However, on a larger scale, what I experienced in the writing of these poems was a quest for newness, for reinvention—in relationships, in language, in the poems themselves. Whether I attained that quest or not, I hope that visible in the poems is the energy and passion involved in the writing process.