[3] According to Lorraine Hale Robinson, Makuck's poems "repeatedly explore the themes of epiphany and second chances; of the relations of mystery, grace, and beauty; and of the revalatory effects of jolts of violence."

He has a "compelling interest in place....[T]he landscapes of Eastern North Carolina have influenced his work," as has the desert Southwest (214-215).

It would be easy to label Makuck a naturalist after reading this collection, as fully three-fourths of the pieces are about encounters with whales, hawks, fish, weather, shifting sandbars and whatnot.

There is always an undercurrent of danger, of quiet violence, times when a quick squall can blow in from offshore, when the beauty of the landed fish is admired for a moment before the knife is unsheathed.

Hawks and hurricanes cannot be held to moral standards, and Makuck revels in revealing this seam where violence and calm collide.