Poetry. "These doubts are like holding/ a hand over a burning candle/ to feel if it's hot.// As if it would be cold?// This is why it was said// a tugboat is needed--// to prove the existence of waves" ("Knowledge Blobs"). "Joanna Furman is a novelistic poet who believes in a complete realism. She is skeptical, but never cynical, and she is wise without being pedantic. She goes beyond the philosopher's advice; she thinks AND she looks and that is her radical human stance of thought and attention. She makes the humors and storms of the everyday as strange as the albatross. Her ricocheting lines go directly to the target. These fresh poems will be fresh for a long time"-David Shapiro.