The poems inHummingbird Sleep move associatively between Coleman Barkss personal experience and his extensive reading, weaving together a wild and eclectic range of material. A discussion of Plotinus, Barkss appearance on PBS NewsHour, a note Keats once left on Wordsworths mantelpiece, a splinter in the heel, and a quote from the Upanishads-all make their way into Barkss most recent poems, which achieve intimacy and expansiveness at the same time.