The story of The Gathering Eye is one of wonder and rediscovery as it relates the lives of the Middle East and China. Seen through the eyes of poet Tina Barr, The Gathering Eye is a collection of poems that inspire open-thought throughout the poet’s journey. This is both a physical journey as well as a cultural one, as many of the poems related include the emotions that Barr first experienced them with. Clear throughout the narrative poems in The Gathering Eye is Barr’s personal identity, perhaps suggesting the title is a nod to her individual experience. She carries her Long Island hometown throughout her many travels, writing as a sister, a daughter, and a foreigner. Barr leans into this cultural difference, working through these narratives to connect links between her own life and those she has just now discovered.