“Where is the stability in a world that is a victim of itself? Thomas Merton came to mind as I was reading this book, his being a person whose cold eye can be cast on everything in sight while his heart is all fire and depth. I think these marvelous poems wrestle with contradiction and so bring us to the possibility of change.”—Fanny Howe, author, The Needle’s Eye

“Chris Bolin has an expert sense of the line and a very keen feel for the poetic image, constructing poems that move with a calm and stately radiance. In its austere tableaux and impersonal but poetically authoritative language, Bolin’s work brings to mind Saint-John Perse’s Anabasis, creating an overall and haunting impression of mankind’s struggle with the material world as he tries to tame, engineer, modify, exploit, find a place in, and save it. Bolin is a poet’s poet, and I expect I’ll keep this beautiful book near at hand to be inspired by its marvels often.” —Geoffrey Nutter, author, Cities at Dawn