Poetry. Richard Jones's new poems typically start out on common ground, but after only a few lines, a seemingly effortless shift occurs that transports his reader into magical realms of the spirit and imagination, some serene, others sorrowful. Jones is a poet who not only knows that the world around us is full of secret gates but has a key that fits every one he tries. Rarely in poetry has clarity served as a springboard into such stunning, sweetly rendered, and utterly believable fantasies. AVALON had me locked in; I could hardly wait to get to the next poem.--Billy Collins