Summary

The collection is prefaced with a painting of a horizon line between sea and clouds. The painting is in muted blues and grays.

Letter to an Unborn Daughter – 28 August. The author begins his first letter, and the book, with this comment: “Now, as I write this, you know nothing about anything, about what awaits you, the kind of world you will be born into. And I know nothing about you” (1). He describes the family that his unborn child is coming into and the home where they live. He pays particular attention to the garden and the different kinds of trees growing there, particularly an old apple tree that he thought was dead but which he pruned heavily (“maimed” is the word he uses) and which is now covered with leaves and fruit. He then comments on how he wants to show the child things...