Though his subjects may be illness, frailty, and dissolution, Macdara Woods insists on witness and clear-eyed expression to animate these poems with a defiant and by times exuberant energy. Poems such as "Big-Top Music" and "A May-Day Aisling Skazka" tap in to a long tradition of playful music imparting dark visions, and add a new and captivating dimension to the poet's ongoing dance in words.