"In the tradition of the modern doctor-poet (think William Carlos Williams), Richard Donze attentively and precisely observes everything-and gives us here, by the phrase and the line, the startling languages of story, pain, the shortness of life, bouncing back, night's shadows, "swallowed stress," the optimism babies inspire, grief, and the sheer beauty of what in a poem previously published in he calls "accept[ing] random circumstance." The lines are short and the experience is long. The convergence of these qualities is what poetry can be." , University of Pennsylvania Kelly Family Professor of English; Director, Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing; Faculty Director, Kelly Writers House Humanities and Arts, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine and Donze's poem about picking strawberries ends with evocative conciseness reminiscent of ancient Chinese poetry: In short: read now." Former editor, and author of