There is a natural ecstatic in Steven Nightingale, whom one might situate on a scale between Emerson and Rumi. And there is also a craftsman--with a jeweler’s or a watchmaker’s meticulousness--who wants to make the sonnet mirror his wonder at the architecture of things. They are both very present in this, his third sonnet sequence and they make a labor of praise and a praise out of labor

                                  --Robert Hass,

                                 Former US Poet Laureate

Here in these 99 sonnets, we are invited into a poet’s imagination as it is fulfilled through a singular form. In case we’ve forgotten the examples of Shakespeare and Petrarch, we are here reminded that form, even one form, can allow a supple intelligence to display its full range and power even as it invokes the body in all its wonders and joys. Here, we find joined the force of ear and mind, both bent entirely upon delight.                    --Katherine Coles

                                Poet Laureate of Utah