What is it like liv­ing today in the chaos of a city that is at once bru­tal and beau­ti­ful, heir to immi­grant ances­tors ​“who sup­posed their chil­dren’s chil­dren would be rich and free?” What is it to live in the chaos of a world dri­ven by ​“intol­er­a­ble, unquench­able human desire?” How do we cope with all the wars? In the midst of the dark mat­ter and dark ener­gy of the uni­verse, do we know what train we’re on? In this cor­nu­copia of a book, Ostrik­er finds her­self immersed in phe­nom­e­na rang­ing from a first snow­fall in New York City to the Tibetan dias­po­ra, ask­ing ques­tions that have no reply, writ­ing poems in which ​“the arrow may be blown off course by storm and returned by miracle.”