In this stunning poetry collection, Terry S. Johnson explores our everyday personal lives in the larger context of those who have come before us. "Quills caressed words like beads on an abacus. Each season, each storied memory, an accounting." Whether writing in free verse or traditional forms employing narrative or lyric poetry, Johnson plays with sound and meaning. Beethoven juxtaposed with jazz, Pollack with Vermeer, Mississippi with Auschwitz, or ancient Egypt with present day Iraq, Johnson deepens our understanding of the historical and natural worlds. "How fortunate we do not sense the Earth"s spin-- its path predictable, its speed fierce."