What to read after An Hour from Now?

This collection of poems, steeped in field biology and the environmental sciences, offers intimate glimpses of a natural world that has its own integrity and value apart from our comprehension of it. The author describes everything from the behavior of birds to the flight of butterflies, from astronomical phenomena to weather patterns and the movements of salamanders. Using an approach reminiscent of the Imagist poets of the early twentieth century, she asks questions while avoiding the rhapsodizing that nature can so easily elicit. Yet the rapport between observer and observed is unmistakable, not only in the empathetic cross-species portrayals but also in the music of the words themselves. Unmistakable, and also welcome.