Palimpsest erases but narrative thrives, cinching in its thawed vintage serifs text still damp with referenced yonder. And lacy. So lacy this off-Baedeker of Victoriana, this text-tease, this curious romantic limbo embellished with doors and doors ajar on a story?no, a source?a source so Giacometti-thin it must be entered from all exits. Antsy and adrift, Darling's fifth collection, ?not a physical body, but rather, the loved one's more ethereal qualities,? is grainy with ghosts the size of teacups, or teacups the size of ghosts. And the way a whole story can fit into, say, a teacup poured with candy hearts. I am drinking from that teacup right now. ---Kim Gek Lin Short

Kristina Marie Darling is the author of over twenty books of poetry. Her awards include two Yaddo residencies and a Hawthornden Castle Fellowship, as well as grants from the Whiting Foundation and Harvard University's Kittredge Fund. She has twice been appointed as a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome. Her poems and essays appear in The Gettysburg Review, New American Writing, The Mid-American Review, Third Coast, The Columbia Poetry Review, Verse Daily, and elsewhere.