Poetry. "WE STEP INTO THE SEA collects over three decades of work by one of the most singular voices in contemporary American poetry. It tells the story of a lyric poet who both probes and sheds the self in search of a 'we, ' not to belong to, but rather, to care for, to serve: 'I will hold us safely together, / we will consider the falling whole.' In these poems of passive resistance and active celebration, we are given a panoramic view of a poet who insists that experimentation is an ethical imperative, one that will help us forge a kingdom of compassion that runs counter to empire. From her home in the desert, Keelan sees an alternative beauty that resists 'the beauty of human enterprise, its folly, from above / Greening a desert.' She sees instead 'the glory of the red rocks, ' and in this gift of a book, she shows us this glory at the very moment when we most need to see it for ourselves."--Sasha Steens