Murawski is a master of consummate poetic craft, as comfortable in handling the rigors of formal poetry as she is the subtle demands of distinguished free verse. The poems of this remarkable collection sparkle with biblical and musical allusion, and timely references to a litany of literary and historical personages: from Chekhov to Cromwell; Hamlet to Mahler; and Sappho to Keats. “A brave poet undaunted by the darker realities of experience, Murawski probes, with haunting insight and emotional honesty, the somber hues of a home bereft of love; an unwanted child; a sister crippled at birth; childhood and relationship abuse; and the insatiable yearning lurking at the core of universal human existence”. —Larry D. Thom as 2008 Texas Poet Laureate