Book excerpt: Going Farther into the Woods than the Woods Go opens with the poet speaking from an interior landscape in which life is going too fast and he is lonely and isolated from himself and others. Life is brutal, and the speaker finds himself constantly questioning his self-worth, yet in a surrealistic, witty fashion perhaps best described as black humor. As the book moves forward, the point of view shifts to a landscape largely identified as a desert. Many of these poems address the horrors of war, with concerns such as political liberation, elections, and the plight of refugees. Throughout the book, the aloneness and isolation of the individual is the paramount theme; yet, despite the darkness of the poet's vision, his fresh, vivid imagery, use of wit and humor, and his unique approach to style and content make this book a showcase for one of the most interesting and original voices in contemporary American poetry.