"To see the humor and wisdom in the smallest things" is Mary Carol Moran's stated aim in this small but powerful volume. She more than succeeds in these perceptive and witty bits of insight. For example this poem entitled "Orange": "Sweet/ with pits" or this one, "Gnat": "My mind is as simple and/elegant as a gnat's. Some poems are light as a feather. Others reach deep and touch hidden places that make us shiver, as in "Pirate": "Plow my fields with your fingers..." or "Vigilant": "...Menace my cub, and I will kill you." This is poetry stripped to its essentials: vivid imagery and gut feelings. Consider "Healing" for example: "Raw/as new skin/beneath a blister." The title poem, "Ocean," sums it up: "I am empty/ and vast as an ocean of stars,/ a clear soul." (Alabama Poet Laureate Emeritus Helen F. Blackshear)