The award-winning author has great faith in economy and, like a true poet, trusts images to transfer knowledge that speech cannot. In "Curses and Wishes" the deceptively short, simple lines add up to a pensive book possessed with an astonishing lyrical melancholy, a harmony of sadness and joy that sing: "May happiness be a wheel, a lit throne, spinning / in the vast pinprick of darkness." It is through such poignant brevity that Adamshick can convey his own mastery and reflect on the human condition.