Alison Croggon: “The poetry of Harriet Zinnes opens on a universe of unsettling clarities. This is language obsessed with perception: in particular, unsurprisingly for an art critic, with the dazzling play of light, which misleads as much as it reveals. Her poems dissolve into 'implacable ambiguity' even as they invite the reader with what appears to be a childlike candour.”

“In these newest poems, Harriet Zinnes composes by unblemished Sophoclean light. Her questions are unambiguous, her answers, however complex, unequivocal. Oh, and her objects, her objects shine without and within, pure in the gratitude of being.”—Donald Revell

“The science of Zinnes's poetry is in its artistry. Objects, words, space... are arranged with poise and imminence. On the edge, we might expect them to tip into the next, but sometimes they hold. Precise, measured, but with delicacy and resolve. A unique voice, and one to be read and reread like Niedecker's.”—John Kinsella

On Drawing On The Wall:

“Harriet Zinnes has already published voluminously in several genres, but the new book is further proof that she has never been content to rest on laurels, has never resisted learning, and has always been anxious to find—for instance in old forms—new astonishment. This grace to change and to encompass becomes her gift to readers, and to readers of this book in particular. All together we, holding hands if not counting feet, plunge into these lyrical evocations of the physical—the color and sound and texture of the lived world—with the intelligent exuberance of these necessary new poems.” —Bin Ramke

“Exclamatory, questioning, descriptive, Harriet Zinnes’ line is one of unusual grace and lucidity. Mathematicians speak of a space-filling curve. Harriet’s poems are equally sinuous, leaping pianissimo from point to luminous point, the whole world her studio.” —Randolph Healy

“Harriet Zinnes is a force for an investigatory poetry. She has produced books on Ezra Pound and her own art criticism has a wide inclusivity. Her lyric poetry reminds one that the psychologists have said one turns wise or bitter, and in this poet’s case her work must be most wise, because it is the least bitter. Sweet-bitter might be the classical summation of her style. Like Miro, the poet knows the necessity of excess and her work has an intensity that is at once particular and immense.” —David Shapiro

Harriet Zinnes was born in Massachusetts but she has lived in New York for many years. She has also lived abroad, as a visiting professor of American literature at the University of Geneva. She has been writing poetry since she was six years old. This is her eighth collection of poems.

ISBN 0-9759197-6-8 $12.50