Profoundly disarming and intensely personal, this collection of poetic essays puts readers in a front-row seat in the mind of the author as he deals with feelings of depression, isolation, oneness with nature, and the difficulties of living with schizophrenia. Occasionally telling the story of characters with memorable names like Sub-Cycle Tears, Vacuum Eyes, or Bittersweet Pushbuttons, many of these selections come straight from the author’s point of view and experience. These personal chapters cover topics like sexuality, psychedelic drug use, and trying to correct commonplace behaviors of human civilization. No matter the narrator, each of these chapters gives the reader plenty to think about as the author relays his journey into his innermost self, prompting the reader to look just as inward if they think they can.

Written in a style that resembles poetry, the author is primarily concerned with relaying his perspective but does so in a fashion that uses line breaks and keeps a beat for emphasis of ideas. Some chapters are broken up into sub-headings that reflect smaller portions of a total idea and when combined offer a complete perspective. There are some frank discussions about how men and women treat sexuality as well as some profanity, but these elements are par for the course when one considers how directly Griffith plugs his audience into his personal line of thinking. It would be a disservice and hypocritical to try and step around some of the ugliness in the world if the intention is to point out ways in which people are not honest with themselves. Provocative and powerful, this book appears almost like a journal at face value but will leave the reader looking differently at the world around them once they are done.

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