Midnight Caf , by Susana Cuartas-Ordo ez, is a powerful gathering of lyrical poems in which the poet is both a participant and an observer - at the center and on the periphery - of a world shaped by love and by its sorrows and joys. These are epiphanic poems, chronicles that explore lost loves, and especially an ongoing love for the unnamed woman who broke the poet's heart. They peer through veils of the present and jolt us with memories of a painful and wistful past. These are raw and honest and intense poems, perceptions that reach out from a heart that wants to be wanted, to be welcomed and healed. Written in the cadences of slam and performance poetry, all splendidly managed, the poems of Midnight Caf introduce an exciting and original new voice in contemporary American poetry.