I’ve been reading Dale Ritterbusch’s writing for 40 years now, and each new collection of his only deepens my respect for his skill as a writer and his sensibilities as a human being.  In this collection, he takes us from the Himalayas to the River of Perfumes, from the Louvre to the ice age kettles and moraines of his native Wisconsin, from the bathtub to dark matter.  He moves effortlessly between home repairs and Herman Melville, antique chandeliers and faithless newlyweds, his efforts to save snakes from getting crushed on bike paths and the ingratitude of the snakes, the perils and pleasures of aging, the ironies inherent in being who we are.   These short prose pieces possess so many qualities of good poetry that the boundary between the two all but vanishes.  What remains is a great-hearted man who, in spite of all that life has thrown at him, remains capable of love, tenderness, decency, and hope.

W. D. Ehrhart, author of The Madness of it All