<div><DIV>By turns joyous and adventurous, melancholy and nostalgic, Michelle Smith's debut collection of poems showcases a wide-ranging fascination with places, people, and story. Smith's limpid and humane handling of an array of themes, emotions, and styles — her Norwegian ancestry, her Canadian Prairie heritage, the significance of family, the fragility of memory, world travel, <i>ekphrasis</i>, myth, and more — exemplifies the lyric self on a poetic grand tour, or pilgrimage, to meet the world. Framed by imaginative travelogues addressed to Greek gods, <i>dear Hermes . . . </i>offers readers an escape and an entrance — out of time and into the poet's luminous experience. Readers who appreciate clear lyric and fleet voicing will relish Smith's poetry.</div></div>