Offering a variety of explorations into different worlds, real and imaginary, beautiful and barbaric, this poetry compilation attempts to illuminate some of life's difficult puzzles. A journey through a series of vivid encounters--ranging from fireflies outside a Gascony farmhouse and John Wayne sailing a converted minesweeper to a bull terrier listening to a CD and the poet standing atop Table Mountain with his granddaughter--this collection probes and celebrates traditional affinities between memory and language, time and loss. In its closing poem, this book suggests that it is the imagination that can best turn darkness inside out.