Far-From-Equilibrium Conditions, Michael Lieberman's fifth 
collection of poems, struggles to find meaning in a world 
unmoored by turmoil and scientific discovery. In one poem, a 
speaker notes, "I will be assigned as nothing" and then implores 
that "it be a significant nothing." Lieberman is one of our most gifted 
poets whose preoccupation with love and desire create a gravity that 
is its own meaning in our topsy-turvy universe. Many of these poems 
are set in Lieberman's Houston neighborhood though they move far 
afield as they search for a coherent vision of the world.

Praise for Leiberman's other works:

 A History of the Sweetness of the World (Texas Review Press, 
Huntsville, TX, 1995): "These poems are animated by a deep 
rectitude, 'the convection that struggle is praise,' and a fiery 
determination to wrest a gleaming light—a saving remembrance—
from the engulfing shadows."—Edward Hirsch

Sojourn at Elmhurst (New Rivers Press, Minneapolis, 1998): "In 
this brilliant book of linked poems, dualities are described and 
suffered as 'the soul of the poet mediates the transactions of our 
life on this earth' while 'caught in the disorienting whirls in which 
order can be glimpsed.'"—Hilda Raz, Editor-in-Chief, Prairie 
Schooner

Remnant (The Sheep Meadow Press, New York, 2002): "In Mike 
Lieberman's Remnant we encounter two memories: one that's 
emotional and straightforward, even passionate, almost 
sentimental—and another one, oblique and sober, the memory of a 
scientist, a skeptic who believes in research more than affection. 
The combination is fascinating and rare."—Adam Zagajewski

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MICHAEL LIEBERMAN is a physician and scientist who lives in 
Houston with his wife Susan. He is the author of four previous 
collections of poems.