Relatively few people have read the poems of Ernest Noyes Brookings. Those that have invariably recognize something as valuable as it is rare: the voice of a true original. Each poem circles around its subject matter with a mixture of clarity and chaos, applying a kind of dream logic to the semantic leaps from stanza to stanza (or frequently within a stanza). The poems always rhyme and the language is always simple, while the sensibility is conservative, almost quaintly so; and yet they seem as avant-garde as they are accessible. Despite being written with no thought of an audience or publication, Brookings's poems nevertheless did gain a devoted following among the readers of The Duplex Planet, the small magazine in which the majority were published. The Golden Rule now presents all of the poems in a single volume, most of them appearing for the first time in book form, and several never previously published in any form. With an introduction by David Greenberger (the man who encouraged Brookings to write poetry) and two appendices offering further insights into the man and his writing, this book commemorates a truly distinctive and enjoyable writer.