In this startling collection of verse, Lee Ann Roripaugh brilliantly voices the unspoken - the Japanese American experience in the 20th century. Like the deceptively simple flowers of a cherry-blossom tree which possess a hidden depth and timelessness, Roripaugh's lyrically sweet poems, beautiful and luring, increase in intensity with each successive reading. Their graceful execution yields to their powerful and disturbing insights. For at the heart of these poems lurk racism, ignorance, and unfeeling. It is to Roripaugh's credit that she achieves so much in such a smooth and elegant style.