Critical Commentary
What would begin as a mountain hike would become a pilgrimage through the degraded world. Patton knows what Byron knew that high mountains are a feeling and the reader follows to the top of each peak to breathe the cathedral air, to witness this sublime and loveless beauty.
The view from Lee Patton's keen sensibility is spectacular.
––Eliot Khalil Wilson
Polished, tight, with a progression to make this collection a compelling whole, Patton's sound-charged imagery dazzles as much as his metaphors startle. We hike trails, crags, and canyons lit with “Sunflash, windlash/Drizzle so cold it sizzles”; “the belched-up mystery meat of Geology's school-lunch menu.” The biggest surprise? Mini-dramas playing out inside poems when improbable characters dialogue: a smart-ass lizard who dithers on a hot rock; a dejected park ranger sharing the speaker's beer; a soldier at desolate Fort Laramie; a cross-eyed casino cashier.
––Patricia Holloway
For decades, Lee Patton’s work has been not only a pleasure, but a provocation to read. His keen comic insight into the American scene is like no one else’s. He writes poems as if he invented the language––poems like dramas that linger in the mind and the heart for long afterwards. Be prepared.
––Carolyn Yalkut
