Well-known for her visionary realist paintings, West is also skilled in poetry, photography, digital imaging, book arts, and pottery. With this book of poetry, she offers what she describes "a road map for seekers, a trail marker for the emptied ones."

Cynthia West says, "Kneeling, I retrieve shattered shards, glue them together. If I can stick even one piece to another, I have a poem. It is bread. . . . To write poetry, I memorize suffering's names, visit the wounds no stitches can hide, gather stories in my pain bag until it bursts. Love aches if it isn't told. . . . My words are small, round circles, elm seeds, designed to inhabit cracks. They sprout, growing leaves that call water, roots that hold earth, shade that shelters fruit. . . . I lean over the stream, holding a tin for panning gold, allow water to wash away the mud until the...