Donald Lev's book collects seventy-four poems that are deceptively simple yet infused with a subtle irony that gives them a poignant intimacy. He achieves this through his reliance on direct, honest colloquial speech. We get the impression that his writing is essential to his ongoing sanity, and this is the redemption of poetry itself in the hands of a master. While satiric wit is his apparent stance, these poems are infused with subtle depth and angst. Lev elicits easy comparison to Dorothy Parker, Ogden Nash and the later short poems of Robert Frost. At the age of seventy-eight, Donald Lev still has many tricks up his sleeve. His style is aphoristic, observant and reader-friendly, yet these are pithy poems to return to again and again, full of sound philosophy from a life fully lived.