Everyone fights a private war behind their eyelids. The nuances appear in wrinkles, in sighs and fidgeting hands and fingers. Often, we gloss over these features of one another; we label them idiosyncrasies and move on. Partially out of callousness, partially because we need to attend our own wars. In UNGRATEFUL MAGIC (2022) Penney offers a ring side seat to a personal war. He invites us to sit down and watch one mental health crisis seen over the course of 100+ pages and 70+ poems. As is the case with any war, some battles are lost and some are pyrrhic victories. The end result is a volume that leaves the reader to parse and decipher which are which; with the war itself hanging in the balance!