It's not often that we can be privy to a public person's private thoughts and feelings. This privilege is granted anyone who peruses this intensely personal collection of Michael Novak's verse. There is the political poetry, of course, much of which is delightful, not least "The Ballad of Richard John", a rambunctious tribute to the late Father Neuhaus in the form of a pastiche of Chesterton's "Lepanto", but readers will also be drawn to some of the verse inspired by Novak's lifelong love affairs with his late wife and with the Church. At its best, the verse in this volume will move the reader to tears of laughter, joy and sorrow. They are the tears of life. - Joseph Pearce