The finely crafted poems in WAVING BACK, Gail Thomas"s third collection, examine the ties that both fray and bind us to our families of origin and those of choice. Using language that is clear and startling, meditative and joyful, Thomas"s poems reverberate with musicality and emotion. Whether writing about aging and loss or the sensual pleasure of plucking an artichoke, she brings the natural world into close focus. From a carnival in Provincetown to a ghostly buck fence in Laramie, these are poems of quiet power that allow the reader to feel "alive with whir and dart" as well as to experience a "banquet of grief." In our age of distraction, Thomas invites us to listen more closely to the voices of the living and the dead.