The poems in Before the Wind must speak for themselves with passionate clarity: 'A shriek in black ink down a diary's page." from "Passage: March 9, 1936." 'Savoring the perversity of power, I opened my hand." from 'Adventuring" 'In that world within our world The explosion of Armageddon!" from 'A Conundrum Visited." 'Oh! Greedy Race to want much more than human!" from 'Speed" 'Thirty-four million miles apart, Through space so narrow that Your passing's like a kiss." from 'On Seeing Mars" (August 27, 2003) All the elements of fine ballads, free and rhymed verses, sonnets, and a villanelle are present in this volume. The past collides with the present in surprising images, and the vivid future is both possible and probable.