Poetry. In THE SMOKING MIRROR, Eric Basso's third collection of poems, we cross the mysterious barricade between substance and shadow to enter that dark forest where, if the tree falls, no one is there to confirm its existence. A bit of dust or some pebbles give life to half-formed worlds, one learns how to eat without a stomach, the hummocks of Paradise and the perpetual twilight of the Underground are but a step away, a dwarf can put his ear to the floor and hear the rustle of an angel's wings. This is a poetry that stares into the cold terror of the looking-glass to unleash a frenzy of trapped images, vestibular encounters, fables and visions.