I began writing poems in earnest as my freshman year at Yale unfurled; they helped me save my life. The fifty poems in this book are the most important of them to me, written over the last quarter century in many places, from New Haven and Laurinburg to Immokalee and Paraíso, Boston and Fort Collins, Bath and Dublin, Cheyenne and Longmont. Though you will not find me, I hope you look for me in every one. —John Clark Helzer, New Year’s Day 2017