Ink Monkey is Diana Hartog's first book of poetry in more than thirteen years and her patience is the reader's reward. In these spare and elegant poems — not a word out of place, not an unnecessary syllable — Hartog turns a perceptive eye toward the stories of seemingly ordinary things, of overlooked moments and long-closed rooms. Whether she is writing about jellyfish, the desert, awkward silences that end a relationship, struggles of creativity, or Japanese prints, her poems are astute and beautiful.