Over the years, I have come to believe that Clarence Major is one of the most significant American poets of the past two decades. Educated as a painter . . . from the outset he brought to poetry the understanding of scale, surface, and palette. . . . His work [ is] also linguistically innovative. . . . His is a catholic but intellectually and aesthetically rigorous practice -- Susan Wheeler I love the stark contrasts. . . . Major is . . . someone with . . . a vivid sense of how narrative and impulse inhabit the visual realm. -- Tracy K. Smith Whether it is through the usage of musical rhythm and images, or slang, at all times, Major maintains a sense of constantly shifting expression and attempts to capture the sharp edge of exhilarating, lived experience. -- Jake Marmer * Chicago Tribune * For half a century, Clarence Major has been writing poems of remarkable revelation, rare insight, sophisticated lyricism, and authentic joy in the world. I return to his work to be uplifted, inspiredto be caught up in his exacting language and to enter the enduring dance of his elegantly inquisitive soul. My gratitude for this work is boundless. -- Sam Hamill No other voice in American poetry sings quite like Clarence Majors. . . . Heres a poet we can call a school of one. . . . Major knows how to make profundity seem accidental. . . . And of course, this concept of easeful engagement is an aspect of the poets genius. -- Yusef Komunyakaa * from the foreword * Majors sparse, expertly constructed poems are like ladders luring readers away from the heavily trod, shadowy ground up into clear air, an ascent that places all the quick changes of the heart and mind into sharp perspective. But these gleaming word-ladders lead down, too, out of the thin air . . . back to the earth and body, to pain and rapture. -- Donna Seaman * Booklist * [ Clarence Major] is passionately committed to the aesthetics of language. His poems, viewed as pure form, demonstrate a tireless quest for the right word. -- Fanny Howe * African-American Review * Major is no modern-day Robert Frost, whispering homey wisdoms across a stone wall, but a highly-skilled experimentalist who reveals the dangers of the pretenses of poets like Frost, whose language gets caught up in nets of their own making. -- Douglas Messerli * Hyperallergic *
