Annalisa Cima has occupied a significant position in the Italian literary landscape since the publication of her Terzo modo (1969; translated as Third Way, 1977). Her early poetry received praise from reviewers and academic scholars in Italy, and, later, her Quattro tempi (Four Times, 1986) was officially celebrated by a reception at the Italian Istituto di Cultura in New York, at which she read some of her poems. Cima's is a poetry of revelations and of semantic and linguistic inventiveness. The difficulties encountered in her work are rewarded by meaning far beyond anything an initial reading would lead one to suspect. Cesare Segre wrote, in his preface to her Immobilità (Immobility, 1974), "Ognuna si presenta autonoma nella sua concentrazione gnomica, simile a untanka o ad un haikai.... Poi ci si accorge che tutte le poesie si collegano, ritornando su pochi temi, richiamandosi con le stesse parole-chiave: esse formano un piccolo...