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""The darkness is a generous space,"" asserts Peter Schireson as he navigates the stories that underpin his life, ""a man deep / in the grey season."" Like that filtered light beneath a forest canopy, his poems are both playful and meditative. The poet ""accompanied by Thelonius Monk / and a small glass of bourbon, / float[s] out into the silver mist / that hangs over the yard."" At his mother's death, he recalls that he ""kissed her on the crown of her head / ever so gently. / When finally she left, / she was accompanied by clouds."" In plainspoken language, these lyrics question meaning, legacy, and grief with imagination and tenderness: ""On the nightstand in a shaft of moonlight, / a photograph of my three granddaughters."" Death may even have its consolations, ""martinis and Chinese noodles, / the afterlife at its most relaxed."" -Abigail Wender, author, Reliquary Schireson's last book was magical. I imagined a tuxedoed man pulling stars from his breast pockets, hives of bees from his hat. Now, in Understories, the magician has become enlightened. He stands in a kitchen, in a clean sweat suit, relaxed, hands at his sides, as if to say, ""No tricks."" It's a wonderful book. -Peter Coyote, Zen teacher and author Painters long ago mastered chiaroscuro to dramatize the space between light and dark, the contrast that captures what it is to be human: our angels and demons, our outer and inner selves, our lives and deaths. Schireson captures this interplay in Understories, always with empathy, often with a subtle smile. Schireson's writing is eye-level with the reader, as in ""Goodbye, Ice Cream"" ""Beneath the tree, / a tearful girl / with tiny fingers / touches her hair, / her prom dress / in her closet, / her first child / in her belly."" Understories is a welcoming collection, always extending an invitation to linger longer. -DJ Murphy, author, Seeking Ordinary Joy @djmurphypoetry

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