Poetry. "With finely crafted and original language, the poems in IF NOT FOR THESE WRINKLES OF DARKNESS explore the acts of observation, perception, and artistic creation in their relationships to one another. The specific moments captured in Frech's poetry are rich with imagery. They resonate with the power of human emotion and conflict. The voice, the variety of music, the recurring themes, and the events of Rembrandt's life, all work together throughout the book to produce a unity of vision, a stance toward experience and belief that is universal at its heart. These strong, evocative poems linger and last"—Pattiann Rogers. "He gives us Rembrandt's life as the painter himself might: immersed in the world, rich with light and shadow, fully fleshed"—Don Bogen.