Our faces express a wide range of emotions, but with masking restrictions during Covid, we all had to learn to listen more carefully and read emotions through people's eyes. Some of the poems in this book directly express those feelings of isolation and it is a theme which influences the entire collection.

Reflecting on the notion of "the persistence of memory" and immortality, Cooper writes eloquently about his own memories as well as dreams. He writes, "It is almost as if dreams are storehouses for memories themselves, perhaps another form of immortality."

Both profound and straightforward in its insightfulness, The Face of Everything celebrates the everyday moments of joy and contentment as well as those of loss and sorrow. Here are poems of rejoicing and of grieving that can teach us how to inhabit the world with gentleness towards all living things.

This new collection of Allan Cooper's work also provides vivid images of nature, particularly in his home province of New Brunswick, and his powerful, meditative poems ultimately profess his enduring understanding and appreciation of compassion and love.