Daniel Brown's poems are splendid demonstrations of the power to be obtained from drawing the reins really tight. Yet…Brown hasn't squeezed out the breath and feeling.

X. J. Kennedy

Brown's laconic and supremely intelligent lyrics pulse with precision and wit. His work is a rare and bracing pleasure to read.

Rachel Hadas

By putting rhetorical pressure on simple words for maximum effect, Brown manages to say things that sound not like poems but like things said in real conversations that actually matter. Except he says them in well-crafted sonnets.

John Foy, Contemporary Poetry Review

Brown's book is an excellent display of the marriage between new formalism and contemporary American poetry in that while the poet's language is deceptively simple, it's organized in a diction that renders a relentless contemplation of a wide range of issues and philosophies.

Rick Marlatt, Rick Marlatt, Midwest Book Review