The works in this volume were composed between 1999 and 2006. Glances is a setting of six brief, enigmatic poems - one of which is set twice - by the Polish historian and writer Agata Tuszy ska. Marilyn Kallet's musical poetry is the inspiration for How to Get Heat Without Fire. Over the years, The Pocketbook has proven the most popular of the songs and is often excerpted from the cycle. Linda Pastan's poem Ask the Moon was composed as a gift for soprano Tobe Malawista. A White Rose uses Alban Berg's Sieben Fruhe Lieder as an inspiration. Seven composers were asked to write one song each as a response to one of the songs in Berg's set. Cipullo was assigned Liebesrode with its "dreams of ecstasy." A text by John Boyle O'Reilly seemed to capture the required mood.