In this quiet, clear-eyed collection, Townsend meditates on lossmdash;childhood bereavement, depression, divorcemdash;to arrive at the realization that it is through loss that we come to possess some of lifersquo;s most profound gifts. "The project of Alison Townsendrsquo;s poetry is to chart a course through the deepest of lossesmdash;to attempt some safe passage through a lifetimersquo;s erasures. Intimate, warm and observant, this book involves us in the inscription of a life."mdash;Mark Doty Alison Townsend was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and spent her childhood in North Salem, New York. She received a B.A. at Marlboro College in Vermont, an M.A. at Claremont Graduate School in California, and an M.F.A. at Vermont College in Mont-pelier. She teaches at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater.