I first heard Tim Hatch when he was a graduate student at Cal State SanBernardino and was impressed. Tim was a stranger to me then, whose towering stature made me feel small even though I am basically six-feet tall. The power and the coarse experiences Hatch’s poems often describe may not be unexpected from a man of such stature, but it is the profundity of his emotional insights that stick with those who hear or read his work. Many of the poems in this collection depict the trauma Hatch experienced as the son of an alcoholic father. The hope in these poems comes in the clarity with which the speaker portrays his experiences and the compassionate spirit that shines through in poems such as “Helping John Piss” and “Breathe Him Close.”