Book excerpt: The Wonder Years, an expertly crafted collection of poems, leads readers on a heart-wrenching journey of love and loss. From childhood to young adulthood and becoming a parent, this collection addresses coping with loss and the feeling that what haunts us never really goes away. In these poems, Arian Katsimbras beautifully encapsulates the essence of origin and the pain that remains after wounds start to heal, giving readers the image of his personal experiences in difficult honesty and full clarity. Katsimbras, with this collection, has painted his life in detail like a brutal renaissance, and each poem holds nothing back while maintaining a moving, emotion-filled magnificence. Readers will cling to every word, holding onto the power behind them. The Wonder Years is a painful but necessary telling of Katsimbras' life that balances past memories with current knowledge.