A career-defining retrospective by a much-beloved contemporary master.

Finalist, 2020 Miller Williams Poetry Prize Like nesting dolls, the poems in I Was Waiting to See What You Would Do First contain scenes within scenes, inviting the reader over and over again to sharpen focus on minute details that, though small, reveal much about human perception and imagination. Angie Mazakis handles these layers of revelation with great tenderness. Her poems wander in the way that a curious mind wanders, so that even though they often end very far from where they started, they are anchored in the familiar, referring to experiences we all share: a moment of distraction in a coffee shop imagining a conversation with someone across the room, or a narrative built around the expressions of the cartoon people on the airplane seatback safety guide. I Was Waiting to See What You Would Do First is a testament to the notion that whether through a cosmic or microscopic lens, “You just see one moment; you just see now.”

Poems on "long distances of the imagination," family, films, France, and art. "The book's centerpiece, 'Alternating currents, ' juxtaposes real historical figures like Alexander Graham Bell and Helen Keller with their fictional contemporaries Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson."--Jacket.

A thirty-five-year-old man with the mental capacity of a seven-year-old, meets a pregnant young woman in crisis, and the two form a lasting friendship. A story about people finding the nerve to take responsibility, and about persevering against the odds. One of Norm Foster's most touching plays, about a man who must learn to let go to move on.

May you, my baby, sleep softly at night, and when dawn lights the world, may you wake up to birdsong. Part poem, part lullaby, this gentle story celebrates a baby's wonder at our beautiful world. From Australia's favorite picture-book creator, Alison Lester, comes a timeless book to share and to treasure.