Act V Scene I

Praise

“Open Act V, Scene I or any of Stanley Moss’s books anywhere, and you will come shockingly upon wisdom and beauty, a diversity of styles–a unity of voice, a voice that was there since the begninning. I love Stanley Moss’s work. The pace, the strategy, the wit, the knowledge are astonishing. Of the generation that is gradually leaving us, those born in the mid- and late-1920s, he has a prominent place. He loves donkeys. He owns Ted Roethke’s raccoon coat. He is an original.”
—Gerald Stern

“Magisterial. . . this book is magnificent. I’ve read it several times with greater and greater pleasure. Its verbal generosity and bravura, its humanity, the quality and quantity of information which it generates into poetry of the highest order make it a continuing delight.”
—Marilyn Hacker

“I’ve loved Stanley’s poems since I first encountered a poem of his in Poetry magazine in John Berryman’s office when I was nineteen.”
—W.S. Merwin

“These are poems made of experience and high intellect. From the first measured trope to the last haunting moment, in which God equals a question, these poems curse and sing about the blessings and tragedies of personal life. Embracing the larger world, they’re also hardy psalms that make me say, Thanks for this important, gutsy collection.”
—Yusef Komunyakaa

“Like any sensible person, I’ve been reading Stanley Moss’s poetry for many years, during which time the force of his work—its liveliness, its swerves and hilarity, the rich religious, artistic, and literary references, and its vivid, sensual worldliness—has never diminished an iota. In our epoch of turmoil, crisis, and grief, I find Moss’s poetry still, always, brings me a little closer to happiness.”
—Forrest Gander

“Moss rewrites the received idea of religion and the religious poet: his psalms may be exactly the new songs needed to illuminate sombre new times.”
—Carol Rumens, The Guardian