What a hive of feeling, thinking activity this book is ... This is one
of the least boring books of poems I've read in a long time ... Cole's sonnet is a form both economical and maximal, which,
through both artifice and resistance to artifice, feels and makes you feel, thinks and makes you think. —Daisy Fried, The New York Times Book Review
This volume of sonnets by one of the form's most distinctive practitioners
calibrates tensions between mind and body, nature and culture, self and society, freedom and restraint ... the poems feel
at once delphic and deeply personal, mapping the thin and porous membrane between the author's inner and outer worlds. —The
New Yorker
For all the
tightness and rigidity the sonnet form sometimes suggests, [Cole] is remarkable for how he lets in the light ... These sonnets
don't let formal restriction inhibit the flow of emotion and heart ... Beautiful, searing work. —Andrew McMillan,
Poetry
These sonnets embody all the best qualities of this poet's enviable economy of language, evocative imagery,
wicked turns of phrase, and sheer lyrical genius. —Diego Báez, Booklist
