This all-new collection by former Alaska poet laureate Tom Sexton smoothly blends his life in Maine, his years in Alaska, and his love of Chinese poetry - which has been a key influence on his work - into a lyrical fantasy that will enchant lovers of verse. These tightly rhythmic, compact eight-line poems demonstrate a rare deftness with - and an even more uncommon ear for - language, revealing poetic form to be neither a puzzle nor an accomplishment in itself, but a compositional tool and a spur to creativity.