This collection of poems reads like one poem, a rich, complex set of wise meditations. With courage, vulnerability, and wit, Jan Bowman celebrates creation, probes the aching of age, and wonders at the " shining" of grief. She renders the ordinary and the extraordinary beauty and bounty of life- with all its griefs, graces, and glories- into words that touch the heart, and the spirit, and illuminate the longing of us all. She captures our very personal and the very universal life experiences.