As valiantly as prose writers try to explain architecture, sometimes poetry can prove more effective. Author and educator Thomas Fisher must have thought so when he and his publisher chose the title of his new book on David Salmela, FAIA—The Invisible Element of Place—which comes from a Wallace Stevens poem sent to Salmela by an English-professor neighbor. The entire poem is reprinted in the book, one of many literary and cultural references Fisher, dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota, weaves into his erudite and engaging narrative.