"Al Ferber has created a world: irascible, nasty, haunted by ghosts, and transformed by his loves. shamelessly invites us into his richly textured fantasies to witness his pain, his doubts, and his exuberance for living. Ferber is a master of the ordinary. He remembers streets he played on and neighborhoods of childhood conquests and defeats. Fearlessly shapes poems out of scraps of memory and comes up whole for his efforts. Ferber is an original voice and spins out vivid scenes from a life." Norman Newberg, the man who lit the kindling.