The Lost Love Songs of Thomas Winter is a story-collection of poems, essays, and photographs composed while travelling through America's National Parks and the land between. This six-year journey owes to the inspiration of a muse who stepped out of a fire one day and returned to a fire one night. That muse took the form of a white dog named Ziggy, who gave gifts on the condition that the gifts be given away. --This isn't a book you understand so much as you move and feel with, more like music than an argument. The Lost Love Songs of Thomas Winter is a lyrical sequence of poems and photographs that traces love, loss, time, and return through the seasons of a life. It feels less like a conventional poetry collection and more like a long meditation: part elegy, part gratitude, part reckoning. The pairing of verse with photography gives the work a quiet, almost liturgical rhythm: image, breath, memory, release. Meaning is carried not by explanation but by ordered repetition, pacing, and shared silence. What struck me most is the emotional honesty. These poems don't posture or perform cleverness. They sit with grief without dramatizing it, and they let beauty exist without denying pain. Love can be impermanent; joy carries its shadow, and yet the book never collapses into despair. There's a steady, humane wisdom running through it, especially in the way it treats time, change, and forgiveness. The seasonal structure works beautifully, mirroring the arc of attachment, loss, and renewal. The presence of the dog, at once companion, witness, and spirit-guide, adds a layer of tenderness that will resonate deeply with anyone who has loved an animal through the turning of years. This is a book for readers who appreciate reflective poetry, nature writing, and work that isn't afraid to be sincere. It rewards slow reading and revisiting. Some lines linger long after you've closed the book, like a melody you can't quite place but don't want to forget. Quiet, generous, and deeply human. --I bought this book for my boyfriend and he says "it's interesting that I got this book the same week we got a new dog. Both have required a bit of focus. After reading this I'm really looking forward to fall, a season I normally would dread, but the prose really flowed in that chapter. Fall now has a new meaning for me. There's a line later in the book 'the road has no beginning or end'. I feel that describes this book. It's a book you can pick up and read a little any time. There's a sense of grace about it." --This spectacular collection of poetry and photographs is a beautiful seasonal anthology of man and his best friend! Remarkable talent demonstrated in both forms of art that fit together perfectly and magnify each other's brilliance! --This was an amazing read for me. Just delightful. What a blessing. --Definitely a great read.