"The fact is that The Welcome is full of pleasures, both linguistic and ideational. There's a philosophical intelligence behind it, one that will rarely allow itself the sobrieties of the philosophical. . . . David Friedman blends surreal hijinks with gestures toward the serious, At their best, an original voice guides a distinctive sensibility in these poems. They'll give you, if you let them, one of literature's underrated virtues: a good time."--Stephen Dunn, winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry