According to Kelly Cherry, Temporium is something like, but not altogether like, a short-story collection, because not all of these pieces are stories. Nor is this a collection of prose poetry, though one or two entries may come close to that. At least a few of them are more like mini-essays, though perhaps they are not essays, either. What they are–these bits and pieces–is moments of time and I have arranged them more or less chronologically. I think of the book as a museum, curating, harboring, or displaying the moments collected herein. Hence the title.