Jacob Salzer's tanka in Metal & Rain reveal the deep resonance between the inner landscape of the human heart-mind and the outer landscape of mountains & rivers, forest & sea-and their many denizens. Making skillful use of emotionally resonant images, Salzer's tanka probe the past, ponder the future, and examine perennial themes of family, love & loss, the nature of the self, and our place in the world: "among deep valleys / there is no me." These deeply thoughtful poems offer no easy answers but invite readers to explore "another mystery / I don't want / to solve."

-Jenny Ward Angyal, award-winning tanka poet and author of Earthbound: Tanka-prose & Haibun, Only the Dance: Tanka Threads and Moonlight on Water: Tanka