The Foreign Service Journal, November 2004

poems. The title poem, “But It Does Move,” a lyrical affirmation of life, is inspired by the words — “Eppur si muove!” — Galileo Galilei is reported to have whis- pered as he left the Inquisition chambers after being forced to recant the Copernican theory in 1632. This delightful collection is sprinkled with echoes from King’s 30-year diplomatic career, a large part of it spent in South and West Asia, such as “Assadullah Safi,” “The Great Buddhas at Bamian,” “The Opium Smoker, Yahya Khan,” and others. Gordon King returned to the U.S. recently from Surrey, England, where he and his late wife, the artist Josephine deBeauchamp, lived for six years near their daughter and her English family. Three books of his poetry have been published in the United States, and individual poems have appeared in a number of maga- zines in the U.S. and U.K. “To Anita Killed By the Bandits,” a poem based on a true episode when King served as consul in Isfahan in 1955-1957, appeared in the Foreign Service Journal (July-August 2003). A Field of Flowers: Poems and Essays from a Diplomat’s Journeys Betsy Orlando, Xlibris Corporation, 2003, $21.99, paperback, 204 pages. The poems and short essays in this collection reflect Betsy Orlando’s life experiences during 12 years of trav- el to more than 160 countries as a diplomatic courier. The book is an accessible and enjoyable tour around the world that sometimes zings straight to the heart, as in “Cut Off,” about the no-man’s-land of a hospital stay captured in the plea: “So, please don’t bring me flow- ers…” Raised on Long Island, N.Y., Orlando is a graduate of the University of Akron School of Law and a mem- ber of the Ohio State Bar Association. She joined the Foreign Service in 1992, and was the 2004 winner of F O C U S N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 31