Radiance, Joe Osterhaus's second collection of verse, is a startlingly unique volume of poems. Graceful and formal, lyric and meditative, Osterhaus's poems employ the rigors of traditional English-language poetic form and, in doing so, display an extraordinary sophistication, reveal the beauty of his mastery and capture the essence of our human integrity. These poems are imaginative in their treatment of their subjects, which are often common and mundane, and thereby reveal, illuminate and surprise us into knowing something new (or something we already knew) about our American lives. A poet's poet, Osterhaus's Radiance is a superb addition to the American canon.