In A World Once Known Al Zolynas observes, responds to, and even celebrates the details of ordinary daily life. Whether sitting outside a café, remembering a boyhood incident, interacting with an insect, speculating about Shakespeare's Hamlet, or musing about writing and philosophy, the poems essentially celebrate the sheer wonder of existence, the mystery of being. No complexifying modernist poet, Zolynas opts for a shameless accessibility in his art. Perhaps that's why Allen Ginsberg found Zolynas' earlier volume, Under Ideal Conditions, "immediately clear and lucid," and why Czeslaw Milosz praised him for his "clear and precise poems" and for his unmistakable individual voice.