Leah Maines traces with delicate poetic brush strokes moments of love and tenderness, images of nature, feelings of joy, sometimes of sadness and slight unease--

like the hungry bird, I, too,
am searching for sustenance and
find it in a ray
of sun that fools the clouds and
for a moment I forget home...
("During the Rainy Season")

Like a Zen painting which always leaves an empty space, so her poems draw us into her world between East and West but create at the same time an opening which allows us to find something of our own in these pages.

"Looking to the East with Western Eyes" is the expression of a fine and enchanting sensibility. Beautiful work!

Christa Polkinhorn-Umiker, Poet and Translator, Santa Monica, California.

Sensual and exotic. These poems are crafted with precision yet are delicate as cherry blossoms.

This elegantly bound book contains a treasure of words that seduce and enchant the reader. I highly recommend it. I am anxiously awaiting the next book.