"Crushed by his ideals the wounded monk contemplates the meaning of summer." This line, central to Ryan's long poem, A Wounded Monk, captures the essence of this short but powerful collection. In A Wounded Monk Diaz explores the nature of meaning and becoming, using the story of an idealistic acolyte to explore his own complex relationship to spirituality and faith. This, alongside the collection's subsequent poems, forms a distinct portrait of the poet's own interior life and in turn invites the reader to consider their own place in the complex network of relationships we call existence.