Let Your Tears Water the Earth is Gus Speth's fifth book of poems and similar writings. It is at once his most personal and his most political. Speth says his poetry captures his thinking better than the many other things he has written. His title here reflects the massive contradictions of our current situation, and yet it leaves a glimmer of genuine hope for regeneration. Toward the end of this volume, he reminds us of Shelley's statement that "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." Asked about this recently, Speth replied, "We wish!"