etry volumes (often thematically or stylistically focused) are a frequent standard, Shirley Geok-lin Lim's new book is an audaciously monumental compilation. In her twelfth poetry collection (added to a library shelf's worth of novels, a memoir, short stories, critical studies, edited anthologies, and special journal issues), we encounter a writer's writer in the truest sense of those words. The word is Lim's purchase on the world, and we readers are blessed for her company, observations, intellect, insight, love, and wisdom as our literary companion and guide."

-From the preface by Lauri Scheyer