"I want to write about the beauty of life. About the aching, painful beauty of life. And the sadness, the poignancy, that seems to be its inseparable companion." Thus we introduce, with his own words, a new poetry collection by a unique voice. Frederick A. Smith looks at American culture and is not pleased. He proposes to his readers a gentler, wiser alternative to the hyper-competitive, hyper-violent world we have made. Born in California, with deep family roots in the Hawaiian Islands, Mr. Smith displays an exquisite lyricism, a simple, clean style, and a deep love of life. His is an island perspective; his time flows slower than ours, his voice is softer. His themes embrace the rejection of striving, of progress, in favor of a sensuous new deal, in which love, in all its aspects, replaces acquisition and power as our goals.