Rules for Walking Out

Crysta Casey's poems, like her paintings, suggest on first encounter the appealing qualities of naive art, but that's a gloss. Behind the good humor and bright, off-kilter details-elevator buttons, coffee spoons, the sailboat on the wall "forever sailing"-we soon sense anguish and bravery and masterful truth-telling. Any reader will recognize these reports from Marine Boot Camp, Camp Pendleton, the Psych Ward and the streets as authentic and heroically humane. I can attest that they are also unforgettable. -Kathleen Flenniken, Former Washington State Poet Laureate