While these poems were born from the rape of the author s wife, the emphasis is on the successful recovery and healing and a stronger marriage. One of the first poems begins, You have come back to me. The title itself enforces the positive, taken from a hymn that begins, The storm is passing over, hallelujah. The book is divided into a number of short sections including a prologue, The Geography of Loving Again, Love s Language Passing, Promises of Kenning, Grave Yards, The House of Life, and the one-poem epilogue, A North Carolina Poem for Charlotte, 1999. While there are poems that deal with places and other subjects, the book as a whole can be considered a series of tender, mature love poems.