Once described as the real thing by a professor of English at the University of Ottawa, Brian Wood’s new book is an attempt to stand apart from much of the poetry written today. This collection of prose and poetry pays homage to many of Wood’s favorites-Larkin, Dante, Frost, Auden and Donne-while striking a voice of his own-quiet, subdued, but sometimes unsparing. Some pieces are about history, others about the modern church, others about faith and belief, but the best poems are probably the ones about love itself.