The poems in Telling Signs tell compelling stories with a long perspective: historical, Biblical, archaeological even to an "unimaginable future when time has swallowed us too." Evoked voices enact the randomness and unfairness of war in stories told by soldiers of the Hebrew Bible and those of both Union and Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. The poet's intense personal engagement with the natural world begin as a child lulled to sleep by roaring waves and extends to adventures in woods and fields as an adult with a dog companion. Personal histories explore the youthful discovery of what work is, and mature, rueful awareness of how the past eludes closure. Intellectually stimulating and emotionally engaging poems are written in plain, even austere language