Words: matter, element, spirit, intelligence, / Light, glory, agency, male, female, God, man. / And behind the words? / For that there is no word. In First Light, First Water, a collection of poems and prose poems by Colin B. Douglas, words definitely matter, and working in and through the words is a delicate but profound sensibility of the elusive but irreducible reality beyond words. The first section, A Certain Tree, explores the relation of man and woman, of God and man, of time and eternity. The second, Last Night’s Equations, portrays people and places found only in dreams, at once delightful and disturbing. With poetic influences from the Bible to Rimbaud, from Breton to Rexroth, this stunning collection will leave readers moved and wondering, dreaming dreams of their own.