With major influences such as T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, and John Keats, Tales of a Stone Mason by Ryan Fredric Steinbeck is a crafted a book of spirited poetry with richly layered stories, both real and metaphorical. The free-style collection took shape when he expanded his ambitious reach into new territory, focusing a handful of poems on his ancestry, including "Saint Chrisostom and the Untimely Exit, 1867," "Frank," "Cherokee," "Ancestry," and "Nobody's Son." This collection finds him getting into many different characters that are much different than before. There's an authentic personality emerging that was not as prominent in previous collections. The poems "One Truth," "Greater Than Love," "Proof," and "Begin To Understand," suggest that Steinbeck feels that universal love is a very important aspect of life. "Sunrise" and "In A Moment" display in subtle aspects of what twenty years of practicing Yoga and meditation can do to a thought process. "Calpe", "Birds Eye", and "Today" are great stories that draw you in to the writer's mind. There's also a poem about The Shawshank Redemption titled "Reclamation," and "Playground" is an ode to "I am the Walrus". "Tales of a Stone Mason" is definitely a big step forward for this author.