This three-part book of poems is a learned journey to the authentic voice of the
Ancient World
, focusing on
Rome
and
Greece
. With language used as labyrinth, these poems criss-cross the narrow alleys and byways of antiquity, then follow the pulse of these early civilizations through the
Medieval
, before nesting in a modern view tinged with reverence for our past glories and failings. Thematically and symbolically, the book is a metaphorical Colosseum of its own hand-placed brick of words with a touch of old Roman concrete and limestone, as porous and crumbled at the edges as time's treasured monuments:
The moldering walls of lips, the kiss of vacant streets
And the quiet, wet solitude bespoken by back roads,
The whispered origami of the Forum, paper gods in folds...