No poet on Earth explores, reveals and revels in the big and small wonders of being human quite so compellingly as David Clewell. Not only is he a master poet, he is a profoundly humane human being, a man not afraid to feel deeply, to fall head-over-heels in love with real life in all its pop-cultural, kitschy glory, and to publicly share that love in language so infectious, personal and just plain F-U-N that your heart has little choice but to dance exuberantly along...

Yes, David's poems reference flying saucers, L.S.D, conspiracy theories and H.G. Wells... But that's not why you should read him. Read these poems because you care about language as art. Read these poems because you care about Humanity, about exploring and celebrating good, old fashioned earthy humanness, in all its strange-familiar guises. Read these poems to be reminded where life's pleasure most purely resides - in the fine details of every moment, in the hands and faces and quirky behavior of the people closest to us, in the syncopated rhythm of two hearts pressed together in the spooning embrace of sleep.

As Robin Williams phrased it in the film "Dead Poets Society":

"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is full of passion. Medicine, law, business, engineering; these are noble pursuits necessary to sustain life, but poetry, beauty, romance, love... These are what we stay alive for..."

David Clewell "gets it." This is real poetry for real people. So, buy the book already, okay?

This volume marks Clewell's arrival in the realm of poetry that contributes something substantial to literature. It's not as inspired on the whole as _The Conspiracy Quartet_, which is his best book to date, but it contains some of his best individual poems.

I wish you would buy this book. You need this book. Everyone you know needs a copy of this book. The holidays are coming up. Birthdays, Anniversaries, Mondays. All good reasons to get this book and give it to someone you care about. Your life will be better for it--his or her life will be better for it--I promise. It's all about seeing the world clearly and loving it anyway, or rather, because.

Intellect, lyricism, deft language, personality, topics of the heart, the landscape and everything in between ... This is the real stuff, a voice that has earned its clarity, honed a point of view, and insists on humor and good spirirts. Had enough of Jorie Graham? Try Clewell.