Eros in Autumn

The rather raw curiosity at the heart of Eros in Autumn, by Steve Schild, is among the many reasons you're going to admire the short poems you are about to experience. Rather than wither and retire into some social stereotype of what a man, a poet, a professor, husband, son and father ought to write about as he grows long in the tooth, Mr. Schild confronts the sudden change from man to old man head on, challenges his most intimate perceptions and boldly questions the perceptions looking back at him, whether from the candor of a bathroom mirror or the scruples darkening a young woman's beautiful eyes.