In Mary Lou Sanelli's sixth collection, the author shows, in poem after poem, just what place means to her: the people, the landscape, the gardens, the cafes, and, yes, the water. She does, indeed, crave the water. For Sanelli, rain, for which the Northwest is so well known, has a mission to revive and cleanse rather than to depress or sadden, and she learns, along with her readers, how to grow and to thrive in this notorious rain. And then there's the harbor which gives her beloved Port Townsend its name, into which the ferryboat routinely travels and along which the author loves to stroll: This water, too, serves to inspire and uplift. But of course this collection isn't only about the water. It's also about the people who live by the water, the friends and acquaintances Sanelli encounters as she walks the beach, visits the boatyard, watches the sunset from the city pier, or attends a wake in honor of one of the Olympic Peninsula's old-timers. And it's about Sanelli's sojourns away from her home, her trips to the mountains of New Mexico, to the islands of Hawaii, and down the long peninsula of Baja California, sojourns she makes which only intensify her love of the Northwest. You'll come away from this book with a deep appreciation of this corner of America and, quite likely, with a longing to know your own home town and your own neighbors a little better than you do now.