In this subtly complex collection of poems, Pam Laskin takes the image of bonsai-stunted and scarred into beauty through deliberate human artifice-and makes it a metaphor of being mothered, smothered and "wretchedly loved." Then with great deftness, she uproots the image and offers us a fresh and expansive vision of a tree, one that summons us to the sprawling beauty of parenting-and of poetry-that is nurtured in respect and love. -David Groff, Author of CLAY