John Balaban is an extraordinary writer and storyteller whose prize-winning poetry and prose are informed by a love of languages, deep scholarship, hard travel, and a willingness to confront the violence and sufferings of the world. In Passing Through a Gate, the best of his prize-winning poems since 1970 are collected in one place, threaded through with essays that link poetry to Balaban's extensive travels, whether hitchhiking throughout the United States or wandering the countryside of Vietnam — during wartime — to record and translate folk poetry.