The Boy under the Bed (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction)

This second collection by award-winning poet Philip Dacey runs the gamut from existential mysteries to domestic dramas. Dacey writes in both traditional and free verse forms, and organizes these selections into four sections whose focus gradually shifts from the inexplicable phenomena of "apple-doors" to the cultural otherworldliness of a foreign country, in "Spanish artifacts". The third section, "nipples rise to spirit", traces a child's growth to middle age, with particular reference to sex and family, while "the presence of Presence" redefines the religious experience.