Praise for Richard Jackson’s previous books

His lines are clouds of love, piercing the sky with enormous empathy, rolling in the azure, torrents of passion, and are arrows at the same time, reaching a peak where they break, crying, cleansing the air, becoming ether. It is impossible to describe this in discursive language. With a melody that is unmistakably his own . . . he is a kind of Scorzese in poetry, but where Scorzese almost succeeds in his films, then stops, seals and terrifies us, Jackson adds a tender, vulnerable voice that blossoms and transforms us, and that is so unique and great, great in its truest sense in Richard Jackson’s poetry.

—Tomaž Šalamun

Richard Jackson has become one of our most important poets. His subjects are those for which poetry originally came into being. The essentials are his songs, his precepts, his adoration. It isn’t simply solace he offers, but it’s solace nevertheless that he lends us.

—James Tate

What you find in Richard Jackson’s great heart and spirit is poetry of generosity and fearless attention you won’t find anywhere else.

—Dara Wier

I think he is either the god Hermes or a sparrow. He is certainly a messenger. And what he says is contained in a single word, although it comes out as amazement, anger, joy, sadness, in an astounding cascade of images, and a variety of tongues. He is a poet of great sweep and vision.  he is deeply tender. He is a master of music, one of our finest poets.

—Gerald Stern