“In the creeks, sloughs, and forest shadows, in the stars, branches, ravens, and trout, readers come to know our world and ourselves. The setting is definitely Southeast Alaska, but that setting transports and frees us. The very specificity is what makes these poems alive, no matter where we live, no matter what particular landscape we inhabit. They are poems that help us to see and to expand. They are as tight and strong as fiddlehead ferns pushing through dark forest soil to a large and leafy unfurling. They light up the deep woods with special meaning. They beckon us: Come, look more closely.”

— Sheila Nickerson, Alaska Poet

The poems in this book have appeared in Alaska and national literary magazines from 1973-1988 while Tyler was living and teaching in Petersburg, Alaska. The editing and layout occurred in the fall of 2018 after Tyler’s writing had been in storage for years and when he permanently moved from Alaska to Lo de Marcos, México in 2008.