In The Clouds of Lucca, encounters with diverse cultures and the unknown lay bare the tension and beauty of human experience by mapping out the range of feeling and understanding of which we are capable. Driven by lyrical voice and attention to the kaleidoscopic particulars, these poems trace the imagination’s imprinting of meaning on the given world. This book explores the interplay of mind and world, of self and society, and of past and present through the lenses of travel, cultural artifact, and the crises forged by our achievement of understanding and our persistent blindness. The Clouds of Lucca crafts an appreciation for the beauty of culture’s broken wonders within an awareness that it is futile to resist change within the weather of time.