Beginning with nine essays published in American Poetry Review, which enact intimate converse with an array of writers, this book examines language and humanness in a way that extends insights into the nature and necessity of poetry. The collection also includes eight additional essays that range from lively considerations of the writings of Henry Thoreau, John Ashbery, and others, to more personal essays in which Revell examines the relationships between language and life, memory and culture and draws his reader into a dynamic exchange about what it means to be a reader and writer in today's world.