Poet­ry height­ens the reader’s appre­ci­a­tion of mate­r­i­al and spir­i­tu­al expe­ri­ence, espe­cial­ly if that poet­ry adds an extra­or­di­nary per­cep­tion about the pow­er of let­ters which com­bine to form lit­er­al and fig­u­ra­tive words. Emi­ly Warn’s col­lec­tion specif­i­cal­ly address­es the Hebrew alpha­bet, each let­ter addressed in three poems inten­tion­al­ly focused on form, name, and num­ber, fol­lowed by three short but apt quo­ta­tions from notable authors. These are fur­ther divid­ed into lin­ear sto­ries, a series of tri­als, and the insights of a ​“real­ized adept,” one who has plumbed the depths of explo­ration in this world encom­pass­ing the scale from tra­di­tion­al Gema­tria stud­ies all the way to the con­tem­po­rary med­i­ta­tive sen­so­ry images. While these poems can be expe­ri­enced with the gen­er­al appre­ci­a­tion one gives to lit­er­al or abstract art, famil­iar­i­ty and even schol­ar­ly study of the Hebrew alpha­bet can only enhance the realm one enters when read­ing, for exam­ple, ​“The Soul’s Chis­el” (mem): ​“A wide brown riv­er swirls through boulders./ Down­stream bub­bles pop in calmer pools…You hide in a cleft of rock/​to watch God pass by…” The rocks and water are one, each absorb­ing life from the oth­er; so it is with faith touched by the let­ters of God.