Book excerpt: Pilibosian's book interlaces the Armenian-American experience with the voices of those in Armenia or the Middle East. These poems are written in a narrative style with a refreshing respect for language as it describes rhyme, addresses contemporary issues peculiar to Armenians, shows a respect for roots. Some of her characters are real and some convenient creations for poetic dialogue. She can be very first person personal: 'I spilled my American hopes of many afternoons on the pavements that wore my life. An Armenian daughter doesn't forget the name that gets her born, the long curls that were shorn.' She can be a resource for history: 'Oral history is a vagrant as a goat ... Orphans were necessary for survival. America and Europe were the pills ... Remembrance is the epitaph/for ghosts of humble glory.' She pays homage to some of the great Armenian artists as in 'Letter to Khachaturian on his 100th Birthday, 2003, to painter Arshile Gorky, Mihran Manoukian, Aivazovsky and others. € She is most effective in her longer poem 'Letter to Nazeli', an exchange of thoughts and feelings between one who stayed in the homeland and one whose physical presence is in America.