Born in 1954 in Olga Bay, near Vladstock, and trained as an agricultural scientist, Alexei Parshchikov combines a keen eye for the beauty of the rural landscape with an uncompromising view of the ruin wrought by chemical poisoning and industrial waste. His poetry has been compared to the work of the American beat poets, such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, but it evokes a world that is often bleaker and much more dangerous. In Parshchikov's world, the world of contemporary Russia, reclaiming beauty and inspiration will be a long and difficult process--a process that can only begin in the language of poetry.