Intimacy with life is the home of poetry. Even many of those who cut a wide swath between them selves and their poetic heart, who otherwise have no interest in poetry, find themselves turning to poetry in the torrent of grief or the clutches of love. These two polarities share a common quality: a deep, profound, and often raw intimacy with life. Any human life spared these extremes is an untouchable innocence, an immaturity that can never truly blossom. When the power of life strips our walls away in its immeasurable tide, or when our guilt or guile tear at our roots and we feel utterly alone in the world, poetry speaks the ocean to us and puts us in the company of all lonely hearts throughout time. When smitten, poetry gives us the courage to swim the sea of desire and step on the shore of a new land. Our intimacy with life is not reserved only for moments of emotional avalanche. The real bounty of poetry is the way it transforms our relationship to the mundane world. When we are willing to taste all the varietals of intimacy, every thing in life comes alive and we ease into conversation with the swelling presence of people, places, and things around us. Everything is shouting at us to awaken into this intimacy: to put down the weight of our aloneness, to create a space without rivalry, to bring ourselves and the world in which we live to life. In this sense, poetry is the language of "awakening." This collection of poetry from Nick LeForce celebrates these moments of intimacy and places them in the context of a larger spiritual journey that takes us from brokenness to grace.