“To those who wonder whatever happened to poetry in the solid, clear, celebratory tradition, Joseph Langland... provides a rousing answer.”—Los Angeles Times 

“Langland exhibits a mature and subtle grace difficult to better. His ability to create pure song distances the performance of the poem from the directness of its content.”—Georgia Review 

“Langland has found the subject matter that his obvious gifts require.... These poems have a searching, agonizing sense of necessity.”—New York Times Book Review 

“In addition to his masterly poetic skill, Langland conveys a powerful sense of place and has a fine control of tone.”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune 

“With a mature sense of the way form can add power to emotion, Langland stirs the heart even as he instructs the mind.”—Saturday Review 

“Langland transforms observations of the ordinary into scenes of importance and magnitude.”—Chicago Sun-Times