My five stars are based on an average rating of the sections. Mostly the book was a good solid 4-star read--you know: smart, classic-rosmarie goodness. But. One section, "Providence in Winter," received one of my famous, late-night, thousand-star downpours. Reading it felt like swimming. Call me a sucker. Call me a snorkeler.

A great breadth, a catholicity of styles and a fusion of philosophy with feeling...poetry with huge negative capability...elegies next to orgasms next to beloved ghosts...poetry neither domestic nor domesticated...poetry fully exchanged in the economy of language, freely trading and coming out well ahead at the close of market...