Book excerpt: Sonnets are among the most widely recognized of poetic forms, dating back almost a thousand years. In this book, Michael R. Collings blends past tradition with contemporary experimentation, public commentary with private meditation, lyric compression with epic breadth, rigid structure with "nuclear-fused sonnets, free radicals, one electron away from exploding." As Robert Reginald says: "Once again Collings shows that 'traditional' does not have to mean 'staid, ' and that all things are possible with imaginative word-play of the highest order. Great fun, great reading, GREAT poetry "