The poetry of Doug Linder is characterized by plain speech, empathy, wit, and a penchant for taking readers to surprising places. The Idea of North brings together more than fifty poems set in the North Country ("Is it a place or is it an idea?"). Linder's poetic imaginings wander the North from the polar-bear-prowled streets of Churchill to hot springs under Montana's big sky, but he returns most often to the place he knows best, Minnesota's distinctive "North Shore," the wild lands north of Lake Superior. Many of these playful poems consider wildlife (you'll find poems about lynx, moose, wolves and woodpeckers) and the natural world (lichens, dragonflies, northern lights), but the collection also includes poems about such diverse subjects as curling, maple syrup, taconite plants, second homes, and a gas station designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Deftly mixing deep insights and play, this is a poetry book even for people who thought they didn't like poetry.