Arlene Weiner leads me, without guile, without sentimentality, 'quick quick cold cold' into the past and back again. Clear-eyed as Elizabeth Bishop, Weiner conjures images effortlessly; there's hardly a ripple in the water. Yet the bay full of dolphins is murderous. Friends die, of course, or, worse, turn you out onto an ice floe with just 'a purse of dried codfish and an oar.' No matter! Rather than using memory to preserve, Weiner would order up preserves and tropical fruits. I want to keep my favorite of these beautifully alert, surprising poems with me as I grow old.

—Joy Katz, author of Fabulae and Dark Horses: Poets on Overlooked Poems