"Breathing the power of nature, this solitary poet struggles to explain the joy he feels in remembering all the forgotten pieces of his life. He walks the tightrope between the glorious certainties of spring and the final collapse of color in the fall, wondering why he always wanted more instead of less. From the silent serenity of the far blue mountains to the unceasing crash of surf on the ocean's shore, he links North Carolina's mountains with the sea. And for a sunrise moment, time stands still in the small, silent pauses between less and more, between now and then, between memory and hope, and he finds a rare and brief beauty in what is not forgotten in the swift passage of time. Richard Betz is a believer in the holiness of nature, which his poetry portrays in all its breathless wonder." Randolph P. Shaffner, Retired Professor of English and Comparative Literature