Review Here is a poetry that is elegant and formal in its deft and compelling use of language, in its musicality, economy, and rhythmic virtuosity; a poetry that is welcoming and wise. It is a poetry of wonder and praise that sings to what is dear and perishable: life and the nourishing environment that sustains and inspires it. It is also a devotional poetry, if by devotional, we mean a poetry devoted to observing life as clearly and attentively as possible as an act of responsibility, respect and love: “Soft purple and green clay like a faint bruise.” Poster’s poetry proclaims with reverence, and with a good deal of humor throughout, its intricately woven and moving song, “I love best what my love cannot make stay.”Gregory Dunne, author of Home Test, Fistful of Lotus, and Quiet Accomplishment, Remembering Cid Corman Carol Poster makes a very welcome return to poetry with this fine collection of poems that mix sharp observation with subtle expressions of emotion. Poster displays a sharp eye for nature, often most tellingly when found in an urban setting, portraying: “a vast emptiness/at the heart of the intersection,/except for a few left-turning SUVs,/and the butterfly….” (“Complicity”) She is able to render the voice of an ex-miner unsentimentally and un-patronizingly when she hears his story: “Kids moved to Salt Lake a few years ago./Guess there wasn’t much for them to stay for—/even with the electric.” (“Electric Lake”) And the stunning title poem presents a meditation on mortality (remembering Genesis 3:19) that is both bracing and beautiful: “Now the vultures circle in late afternoon thermals,/As if the crumpled houses and rusted mining gear/Were the carcass of some great creature/Laid out for their feasting.” A rich and rewarding addition to our store of poetry.Gregory Luce, author of Signs of Small Grace, Drinking Weather, and Memory and Desire About the Author Carol Poster is the author of three chapbooks of poetry and three books of commercial nonfiction about outdoor recreation. Her poetry translations include Selected Poems of Jacques Prévert (White Pine Press), Platus' Stichus (Johns Hopkins University Press Complete Roman Drama series), and Aristophanes' Clouds (University of Pennsylvania Press Complete Greek Drama). She has also published nonfiction widely in magazines and web venues on topics as diverse as skiing, backpacking, computer technology, video games, real estate, and green lifestyles. Poster has been writing for publication since she was a teenager. After graduating from Hollins University, she worked for a decade in the computer industry, first for Fortune 500 companies and then as a founder of her own consulting and software development firm, while continuing to write. Next, she returned to school for an MFA in Creative Writing (Eastern Washington University) and PhD in Rhetoric (University of Missouri), publishing substantial amounts of scholarship on ancient rhetoric and rhetoric of religion and teaching at University of Northern Iowa, Montana State University, Florida State University, and York University (Canada) before returning to freelance writing and photography. Her poems, translations, and works of short fiction have appeared in periodicals including Avocet, The Ball State University Forum, Bitterroot, Blue Unicorn, The Formalist, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, Hyperion, Kansas Quarterly, The Literary Review, Longhouse, The MacGuffin, The Maine Review, Outerbridge, Ploughshares, and Poetry East.