The finest poems Holm has ever written. -MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE In this collection of poems, Bill Holm-like a modern-day Walt Whitman bestriding America and the world-comments on the waywardness and promise of the human species. Playing the Black Piano reflects Holm's time in Iceland (his ancestral home), his ongoing love affair with music, a friend's death from AIDS, and his bold reactions to the world around him. Moving from Oregon forests to the deserts around Tuscon, from the endless marketing of long-distance telephone service to the experience of undergoing an MRI, these poems speak of Holm's full embrace of the world and his passion for living well. This is a wise, musical collection from one of Minnesota's most treasured poets.