Words Before Dawn

William Wenthe's third collection begins in the domestic realm then moves outward in subject and place -- to a bird market in Paris, the Jaffa Gate in Old Jerusalem, the Chain Bridge in Budapest -- before returning to the familial. The poet recalls his own cherished experiences of fatherhood: rocking his infant daughter in the early morning, lying with her outside on a pink flannel sheet, and watching her joyous reaction to the sight of roses. While actively engaged in the artist's struggle to r