“These economical, impeccably crafted poems contain a lifetime of seeing, of making the particular and ordinary memorable. Blessed with a fine ear for the rhythms of American speech and idiom, John Skoyles makes the reader hear the poems. 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 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. 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—the embrace inherent to his work is a natural and powerful antidote to loss.”

Bob Hicok