“In these economical, impeccably crafted poems, John Skoyles moves among figures from the past, the present, and into the future. This book contains a lifetime of seeing, of making the particular and ordinary memorable. Blessed with a fine ear for the rhythms of what we think of as American speech and idiom, he makes the reader hear the poems. Skoyles is a poet attuned to the everyday experience, small moments that often reveal an inexplicable longing not quite disguised by his wry humor and understatement. His is the mature voice of someone writing not so much to close down or evaluate memory but to keep it alive in the present. He is one of our most original, excellent poets writing today.”

Cleopatra Mathis, author of After the Body: Poems New and Selected

“John Skoyles’ work is exhilarating in its precision. He builds his poems around the natural limits and contours of the moments and situations he examines. This fidelity suggests a man ready to meet each day on its own terms and engage our joys and perplexities as an honest guide. It also gives his imagination great depth and force, since what he creates or perceives is so deeply rooted in the actual world. This exacting quality is a form of love, a way of allowing that which his poems hold a chance to speak louder than he does. Writing this brings a line of his to mind—We’ve got nothing to lose but our losses—I think because the embrace inherent to his work is a natural and powerful antidote to loss.”

Bob Hicok