So many poems articulate either certainty or its opposite, nihilism. What I love…is that the speaker takes the time to change his or her mind; this is a poem that thinks…And what thoughts: goats, lutes, and shot glasses abound, as do intelligence and sly humor." - David Kirby, judge, James Wright Poetry Award 'I imagine it was a matter of the sheer control, the precision of the descriptive language, the beautiful cadences. We are participants…standing at the shoulder of the poet in the deeper darkness before dawn as description gives way to meditation and thence to the more personal conversation we overhear. It is a beautifully measured poem which deepens even as the day lightens.' - James Norcliffe, judge, New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition