Armando and Maisie

The poems use warm and friendly language to unfold a special connection. Armando, immigrant from South America, has made a life in homelessness and shares his daily wisdom with the poet, who in turn shares his dog's love. Armando and Maisie is a curious and caring story in crafted poems that open up that life to readers.

These poems are amazing. They're exquisitely, naturally wrought and so beautiful, so sensitive. Wise yet feeling - the humanity of Armando, and the interlocutor here - so very Wordsworthian.

I'm also reminded of Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz, about whether one can keep one's humanity in the camp, whose aim is to dehumanize. In the same way, these poems look at every facet of Armando that can be seen (and speculate on the unseen).

-Frederick Roden, The University of Connecticut