Wrigley is a poet who speaks to all sorts of readers, not just a specialized few. His poems are usually very accessible, but not easy to put into other words, because they are so wonderfully written. Buy this book and read the poem "Conjure." It's as beautiful a love poem as you'll ever fine. Read the long series of poems that give the book its title: scary, exciting, and like all Wrigley's poems, beautiful. Even the italicized poems that are spaced through the book--they are impossible to paraphrase, but they are the kind of poems that make the hair on your neck stand up and chills slide down your spine. I can't wait for this poet's next book.

Anyone that has spent anytime in the great ourdoors, be it hunting, fishing or just observing nature, will find something to identify with in Wrigley's poems. He reaches a part of us long ago forgotten and touches our primitive soul, igniting our memory like the wind whipping at a dying coal. Highly recommended.

There are poems in this book that go deeper into that place that poetry can go than the work of any other poet I've read in years. They make a good ache. They make you want what you can't quite imagine. They make you understand something you can't find the words for. But this poet could and did. Some of the poems are strange, but even when they are strange, they make you feel what one critic described as Wrigley's "delicious melancholy." It really is like being under a spell, and it's beautiful.

I too am all bent out of shape over this book going out of print. I suggest that if you see this book for sale, even if it is an Internet Auction, you should get it right away.

Here are some reasons why this poetry is so amazing. First and foremost, the voice of this poet seems unique and fresh to me. Nothing reads like Wrigley's words. He may have his influences, but trying to compare him to Frost, or Cummings, or Bukowski, or Thomas, or any other poet may be futile.

Another reason I love this work is that it is accessible. By that I mean that much poetry these days seems stuffy, boring, and irrelevant. But Wrigley is hitting home with his words. For instance, "The Bramble" is a study in great opening lines, engrossing narrative, and unexpected endings. The first line begins, "Cathedral of thorns, brambly fist --" and I can almost see the arched weeds and thorny vines he is walking through. Soon he has become nearly lost and stumbles upon a rusted car nearly pulled apart by the branches and vines weaving their way into the steel frame. What he finds and the memento he steals, well, I do not wish to give it away. Suffice to say, I envy his way with words, his ability to instill in my mind a memory that is not my own.

I can't believe this book is no longer available. It's a gorgeous book from front to back, full of the best American poetry has to offer. Get it any way you can.