The idea of home, the magic of story, and the healing power of nature inform the poems in Late Winter. Yet, Bill Brown understands that loss and grief, breaking and mending deepen the human experience. "Taking joy, isn't easy," Brown writes, "as if you could ignore lost faces in city streets, or playgrounds littered with broken glass." These poems often mine the darkness of loss, war and our culture's constant barrage of status and style. Even so, in "Dream Letter Lullaby" Brown asks us to "be as hopeful as the hands of children sleeping." His world gives us the right to reclaim our...