Star Journal

Time and the shifts of time are the burden: not simply time as recollection or loss, but also and everywhere the persistent loneliness of star time, mastodon time, so that finally these are poems in which reflection takes on uncommon amplitude and presence. And all this would be nothing, of course, without the language, which is the glory of these poems.

Christopher Buckley's selected poems, pieces from 1979 to 2014, are intimate, lyrical portraits from a down-to-earth speaker aware of his smallness. . . . This is not a flashy book of poems but an appreciative, meditative one that lingers on the specificities of life. . . . Star Journal is a collection that is keenly aware of, but expertly deals with concepts of scope, space, and time.

Christopher Buckley's gift for wide-ranging thinking meshes so gracefully with lovingly tender details, he feels like a companion voice for all time—a Hikmet, a Neruda, yes.

There is a deep nostalgia here, but also wisdom and common sense, and beautiful writing. I welcome him at his maturist, poet of stardust.

The poems are verbally so rich, generous, out-loud (I can't not intone the rhetorical flourishes), inclusive, wry. I like especially the orientation to the large-picture physics/cosmology at the same time that (Buckley) relates his own past. . . . I like the tone—how else to address one's mortality & mixed luck except with irony & affection stirred with gratitude?

Some poets like only celestial music, other the grit of the streets, but Buckley engages winningly with both.

Prize-winning poet Buckley has a unique poetic voice, a sort of breathless, long-sentenced style that is gripping and captivating . . . . These are poems of immortality and extinction that can still make you smile. He has an exquisite ear for language and a gutsy way of blending bravado with humility.

There is a quietness to these poems and breakouts of lyrical intensity that define Buckley as a master of the art.

As straightforward as a yardstick, measuring by star-light, the weight of a butterfly heart. A book of poet magic, a proverbial pot ofgtold. 'Today's Book of Poetry' defies you to open any page of this book and not be entertained and enlightened.