Vladimir Azarov moves back and forth across borders in these 25 long poems, exploring in his travels metaphorical landscapes of luminous vibrancy: the madness of a king who wants to be a swan, Michaelangelo chiseling a heart that beats into his David, Tsar Peter with his three pet dwarves acting as generals in the army, Vera Zasulich who became the world’s first female terrorist, Robinson Crusoe hunting for the footprints of Friday, Michael Jackson pretending he is Marcel Marceau as he woos Marlene Dietrich in Paris. Azarov is the masterful poet who steps out of the desert into the holy chapel of the imagination. Images throughout offer the reader an additional expression to the poetic experience.