In this, Tim Suermondt’s third full-length book of poems, he uses the word beautiful sixteen times, each time the word as fresh and apt a choice as it is the first time. But that’s not surprising if you know Suermondt’s work. He is a poet who seems especially well-fitted out to find moments of beauty in this world without sacrificing his wry understanding of the world’s absurdities and complications. One might say, in fact, that Suermondt’s alter ego is a Romanticist of both tender and heroic proportions, who not only transforms the mundane into the mythic, but more cleverly, the mythic into an everyday occurrence. With charm, wit, and whimsy, his voice-whether that of philosopher, lover, or friend-convinces us that being alive is beautiful, despite its adversities. And that is beautiful, indeed. –Myrna Stone, author of The Casanova Chronicles