"Richard Jackson has extended both the noble body of contemporary poetry as well as its planetary horizons. His lyric sensitivity resembles the smooth flow of a deep river. The sur- face reflects quotidian events from touching emotions and inspiring landscapes to horrific political crimes but deeper down there the real Dantean drama draws one in the abyss of Promethean empathy and powerful ethical dimensions. His is the poetic beauty and the subtle touch of a man of incredible poetic expression and planetary conscience." Iztok Osojnik "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, his companions. It isn't any simple solace he offers, but it's solace nevertheless that he lends us." James Tate