Synopsis This collection of prose of Jayanta Mahapatra, which brings together his engaging lyrical essays written over the last thirty years, should open a door on and provide a deeper insight into his work. In these essays and memoirs Mahapatra ruminates over such things as what he finds in a good poem, how he feels about his own creative process and what governs him while he writes a poem; or a book like The Hive, or his meeting with the mythic Ginsberg.  Even in his essays on social issues like hunger in Koraput or a cyclone in Orissa, he is trying to plumb mystery, an activity so dear to this conscientious poet.  Many of these pieces were first published in literary magazines in the US and Canada, notably in Dalhousie Review.  The Hudson Review, Queen's Quarterly and World Literature Today, among others.