Micus expands his already broad musical horizons on Desert Poems, his 15th solo project, which he recorded between 1997 and 2000 in his studio on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. Among the "firsts" on Desert Poems are Micus's recorded debuts playing three African instruments - the doussn' gouni, (a West African harp), the kalimba (a Tanzanian thumb piano) and the dondon (a talking drum from Ghana); his singing in English (a haunting solo a cappella performance called "Contessa Entellina" and on "For Yuko", dedicated to his daughter) and an instrumental arrangement of "Shen Khar Venakhi", a 13th century polyphonic choral piece from Georgia, which is the only work Micus did not compose to appear in his discography to date.