Carrie L. writes: In these beautiful, reflective poems, Domestication is a collection to be savored. As I read each poem, the words of Rob Hardy’s generous, intimate introduction resonated. Regarding a move to Minnesota, he notes, “Poetry became a map to help me make my way to this new place.” In these beautiful, reflective poems, that new place is sometimes a physical location, an experience, or a fully appreciated moment. A classicist who has spent much of his adult life noting the extraordinary in the seemingly mundane, Hardy is as astute discussing a young boy building a world with clay as he is the fall of Troy. His words, soft, powerful, and somehow always bearing his wonder and gratitude, allow the reader to feel the magnitude of the personal and the universal, the momentary and the historical. A poem I returned to again and again, “Ars Poetica While Waiting for the Appliance Repairman,” begins: These words will never fix anything. In its entirety, however, this poem stamped Hardy’s self-deprecation on my heart and righted my morning. I’ll keep this collection close at hand.