"Robert Michael Pyle's poems respond to details, events, and emanations from the real, physical world and its species: humans and all the rest. The poems are based on or drawn from personal experiences and perceptions, mostly out-of-doors, and will appeal to the intelligent general reader, lovers of land and literature, fans of a good poem and a good story, and naturalists--which means anyone interested in the world and its occupants beyond themselves and their immediate self-concern. Robert Michael Pyle's voice is an essential element in the culture of our literary and scientific community. His deep knowledge of the ecology of the earth and the life patterns of a wide variety of living forms, his careful attention to detail, his passion and energy and commitment to humanity that appear in his past work are present in abundance throughout the poetry in Evolution of the Genus Iris. We are fortunate readers indeed to have this new book and its poems abroad in the world."--Pattiann Rogers