A collection of over two hundred poems spanning the sixty years of the author's life and the many countries in which he has lived and worked. Divided into four sections, after the Introduction: 1. "Birth, life, death" (largely autobiographical and family-related)

2. Songs and singers (the author's songs, and poems about singers and other musicians from many cultures)

3. The written word (reflections on authors and writing)

4. Facing off the thought police (poems on censorship, political repression, assassination), followed by a "Postscript on Czechoslovakia" in prose.