Eros presides over the operatic spectacle of these poems, and Melancholia over their ravenous clarity. The tragic and comic dispute a border, a margin that divides death from resurrection, separation from reunion, renunciation from celebration, and the spirit from the body. The poems themselves are pilgrimages back and forth between Eden and this green world. This new collection more than confirms what David Baker in The Kenyon Review said in response to Pankey's last book: "He is outstanding among an emerging generation of talented and accomplished poets."