If you shuffle up to Foster Point on Foster Island this Sunday at 5 pm and lay out a blanket on the grass, you'll hear some of the strongest Seattle-area poets reading poems as boats variously motor and sail by. I can't think of a better spot to launch a book called We Sailed on the Lake (BUNNY), the second collection of poems from local poet, writer, and editor Bill Carty. The speaker in these poems comes off like a casually wise, funny friend trudging alongside you with a beer and cut-off shorts as you both navigate the indignities of the last decades. Despite all the bullshit, he finds enough worthy mystery in the world—and in language—to share. Carty's poems embrace jokes and straightforward speech, but rhythm and music drive every line. If you don't believe me, pick up the book in a local bookstore and read the first four poems, which are perfect.