Mana Van Duyn's most recent collection is splendidly witty, moving, sometimes astonishing. As Howard Nemerov said of her last book, "It is not only that the best of her poems teaches us so much about life, but that life, over a long time, teaches us the truth about these poems." From the brief poems she calls "minimalist sonnets" to the powerful long poems "Falls" and "Delivery," both recalling incidents from childhood and youth, the work in this extraordinary book is that of a poet reaching the depths and heights of her own talent. A companion to this one, If It Be Not Collected Poems 1959-1982, restores to print in one substantial book all of her work from Merciful Disguises and Letters from a Father.