signed by author. inscription on 1st page.  cover edge chipped, rubbed and worn, small dents and light markings. edge and end page foxing. a few margin spots.  dustjacket faded and aged  with edges tattered and torn, scrape marks, and many holes front and back. leaves torn.

1978 The Blue Oak Press hardcover. 117 pages, 9 1/4" x 6",

John Berutti is a poet of love and a poet of life. His vibrance and polish lie underneath the grit and strength of a rancher and a husbander of the earth; ans he speaks of the earth flow, and he speaks of the earth flow, and humanity, in its ebb an wake. His is the voice in trembling flight of a late dove in Sattley in the September hunting season, and he speaks the bitter melioration of an anthropologist, man's evolution, as in "My Twin." But finest of all is the voice of the poet of love: spoken with depth, irony, and the agony of belief and hop and loss. These things are spoken of, not with the edge of bitter hate, but faceted with one man's passions, lusts, joys, and longings - with such brilliance and clarity that the poems shine for all humanity, with all its loves: Breaking as tinsel to your touch / tinsel, love / Breaking to your touch.