In this book of poems, Catharine Savage Brosman employs a wide array of forms and styles to address the problem of being and the complexity of relationships.

Catharine Savage Brosman gracefully employs here a wide array of forms and styles to address the problem of being and the complexity of relationships. The first section, "A Distant Shore, " introduces characters chronologically from King Minos to D. H. Lawrence who are given voice through Brosman's craft. In "The Muscled Truce, " twelve short poems describe activities as ways of encountering the world. The book closes with "A Cosmic Comedy, " in which works about contemporary situations reinforce earlier metaphysical concerns. At turns witty and weighty, personal and universal, The Muscled Truce continues Brosman's tradition of writing classic poetry.