A former Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner for the collection The World Doesn't End, Charles Simic (1939-2023) also channeled his humor, imagination, and circumspection into essays. Spanning his career, the selections here consider the influence of literature on his childhood development, the relationship between food and comfort, and the impossibility of returning to his Yugoslavian homeland that no longer exists. Here too are Simic's reflections on fellow artists like Joseph Cornell, Buster Keaton, Marina Tsvetaeva, Saul Steinberg, and Roberto Calasso.