"I'm shifting by degree," we hear in the opening poem of Ann Herlong-Bodman's Loose in Far-away Places, a collection filled with the wondrous vision of what it's like to journey--alone--away from the familiar. This bold and adventurous poet must have surprised even herself when one day she left her predictably safe landlubber life to venture seaward, on her own--to the unpredictable and the new. First, there's the adventure of living on a boat, surely a lifelong dream that includes halcyon days on the water, but undoubtedly also lonely, dark--and sometimes scary--nights on the...