The danger of preoccupation with the material (“The world is too much with us…” as Wordsworth put it) is a perennial subject of poetry. Yet poets have to navigate through and communicate with the things of this world, however much their interests may lie beyond the immediate here and now. The best writing is open to and informed by both realms. Annie Bien’s poems have a profound sense of otherness and vision, even while they are so precisely located in the recognizable world. Equally aware of our limits and our potential, they are prayerful, thoughtful meditations from a journey we embark on with all creatures. Pat Boran, Poet