Twenty-two poems centered on the circus and its culture. For years, Larry D. Thomas has been a contemporary master of the precise image, but with this new collection, we discover that he is also ringmaster and clown, lion-tamer and lion. In poems as well-honed as the knife-thrower’s blade and as minutely accurate as his aim, this exceptional book honors well both its overt subject, the circus, and its implied subject, the making of art. These poems are infused with the high danger of artistic enterprise and should be approached with caution: their stark beauty cuts deep. — Benjamin Myers, Oklahoma Poet Laureate