Former Shakespeare teacher, novelist, memoirist, and founding editor of Ploughshares, DeWitt Henry in his first full collection of poems goes in varied and unexpected directions, from "mapping the heart" to meditating on the DNA of everyday words such as "candidate." He delights in quick-witted, gymnastic free association, contrary directions of thought and argument, and freely negotiates between the colloquial and literary, the personal and the cultural, and mixes moral searching with a benign, self-depreciating humor. His favorite pronoun is "we." A deeply lived, engaging, and original debut.