Giovanni Cecchetti's Nomad Diary begins with The Great Valley, a superb long poem which shows the course of the planet framing the course of humankind and civilization. Following poems feature mesmerizing crocodiles, crazy cypresses, giant mosquitoes, the pollen of jazz of New Orleans, drunken islands, and an enchanted teenager in the sea. A short collection of elegant epigrams rounds out the volume. The West and Southwest were dear to Cecchetti and appear throughout the book. His essay On Writing Poetry in a Foreign Land has been translated here by Raymond Petrillo.