The twenty-three poems in Household Words take an unflinching look at loss and celebrate the remarkable power of healing. In a precise style, Stevens presents poems with a disarming simplicity that often belies the depth of the emotion readers will discover upon rereading. Includes original artwork by the author. "I drop the rake / I am almost old. / The stalks of last summer's lantana / are pungent, promising / ... A dark smell rises from rank soil / The mute gravity of ground drains breath." --from author's poem "Spring Clean Up"