"Asleep in the Fire is a brilliant first collection of poems. The language is everywhere fresh and bright, the words themselves like pebbles in a clear brook. The poet comes wonderfully to light with a voice with deep spiritual resonance. Chard deNiord is a splendid new presence on the poetry scene."

 

—Jay Parini

 

"In these spry and thoughtful poems a splendor of loving irony embraces deNiord's world, and it lights up with his warm, intelligent attentions. Here is the spirit's acumen made articulate."

 

—Stephen Sandy

 

"In deNiord's work, it's not just the heart being examined by the mind, it's the mind being examined by the heart. There must be a place where the two of them meet--and live in peace. DeNiord's poems are an attempt to find that place."

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—Gerald Stern

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