Songs of Mourning and Worship

"Bruce Laxalt writes a poetry of distinction and power. The places found in these poems are various: an island in the Caribbean, a courtroom in Reno, a morgue, a mine shaft, a bar near Stanford, a doctor's office, a deposition room, a restaurant on the Pacific coast. Yet these places have one thing in common: the experience of the poet, given form, so to make for us his rare gifts. Some of the poems here remind one of classic flamenco: it's when death and pain, in the forge of language, are used as the raw materials of beauty.
Some poetry gives pleasure, as when we admire a pretty ornament. These poems are better than that-they are the poems of a man who knows his calling, and has done crucial work. He has looked at his life and death, looked them in the face, and then come straight to us and told the truth." --Steven Nightingale, poet and novelist

"Haunted by what little time is given to live the one purposeful life, Bruce Laxalt has written a narrative that longs to be freed from mortal time, and it becomes a further shore upon which we may lay our eyes in contemplation. Beautiful and stubborn in their exterior, these poems of anguish and reflection imagine each moment without the yoke of the sundial." --Shaun Griffin, poet