In his new poems, Heinrich Detering draws on a history that reaches back into nature before humanity. He engages in conversations with the dead, explores everyday life from the perspective of children, inquires about the birds of Golgotha, and the olm salamanders that exist in darkness at eight degrees. He observes such diverse figures as the designer of a speaking machine in 18th-century England, the inventor of the lightning rod who was struck by lightning, and the Pope who forgets his surroundings in St. Peter's Square. With a light approach to strict forms, he unfolds a poetry that, with humility, curiosity, and a sense of play, questions the first and last things – and the everyday life in between.