Taking its title from the root meaning of Dublin, Ben Howard's fifth collection of poems probes the provenance of naming. Ranging in locale from eastern Iowa to County Clare, these poems endeavour to call the things of this world by their 'rightful names'.

Whether the object of contemplation be a vanished Dublin bookshop, a bronze cast of Abraham Lincoln's hands, the month of February, or a son's twenty-first birthday, Howard's poems seek wholeness amidst flux and fragmentation. Grounded in contemplative detachment, they cast a clarifying light on contemporary life.

"Howard is another American poet captivated by Ireland to--one can't help thinking--the good of his craft. He writes just about the most natural, musical iambic line around these days, primarily in a propulsive, precise, and vocal blank verse but also in sonnets, quatrains, and unrhymed forms. It's as seductive of the inner ear as Irish storytelling is of the outer, gently drawing attention to large, subtle meanings."
Booklist

"Ben Howard has crafted a volume rich in memory, place and meditation - sustaining reading for the new century."
Marc Connor

Ben Howard, a native of eastern Iowa, is the author of The Pressed Melodeon: Essays on Modern Irish Writing (Story Line Press, 1996), the verse novella Midcentury (Salmon, 1997), and four previous collections of poems, most recently Leaf, Sunlight, Asphalt (Salmon, 2009). He has received numerous awards, including the Milton Dorfman Prize in Poetry and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is Professor of English Emeritus at Alfred University.