In Making a Map of the River, award-winning poet Thorpe Moeckel focuses his rueful, tender attention on the spectrum of being-family, work, play, nature, home--sometimes all at once. The river in question is not just the Chattooga or its colorful, conflicted, rain chasing paddlers and guides. The river is consciousness itself, and Moeckel navigates the rapids and pools of memory and presence and language, layering moments of recognition and realization with painterly details and silty tonalities that embody the paradoxes of living in and representing the natural world. Lavish and austere, this is a book that lingers long on the tongue and eye and ear. It will fascinate readers who know the Chattooga and readers who don't--and will delight anyone who wishes to get closer to life's complexity, beauty, folly, and joy.