Winner of the 2005 Brittingham Prize in Poetry, selected by illegible] Collins. Susanna Childress writes with an earnest desire to understand things physical and things spiritual. What results is a first collection of illegible], honest poetry that explores various human illegible]; a cancer-ridden wife, an illegible] father, an illegible] couple, various sexual illegible], a missing girl. Such careful illegible] provokes the reader to consider the complexity of human love; how selfishness, fear, illegible], and even illegible] might illegible] with tenderness and loyalty. Childress's writing is refreshingly illegible] and clear, her voice essentially illegible]. She is brave enough to look at the darkness of the world, but she is more courageous to hope.