Poems deal with childhood, color, censorship, freedom, greed, loneliness, love, pain, and mortality.

Nina Cassian (1924-2014) was born in Galati, Romania. A composer, journalist, film critic, and translator of Shakespeare and Brecht, Cassian was exiled from Romania in 1985. William Jay Smith, American poet and two-time finalist for the National Book Award, was the nineteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1968 to 1970. William Jay Smith, American poet and two-time finalist for the National Book Award, was the nineteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1968 to 1970.