Courage, Revising the Text

In Courage, Revising the Text is William Pitt Root's sixteenth book of poems. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo said of Root, "To read [his] poems is to cup a breath in your hands. Within the breath are fervent promises of remembrance whispered from the wheel of death, marriages, birth-out of fury and love." Barry Lopez said, "[Root's] poems, as quiet and knowledgeable as boulders, are run with compassion and longing . . . they break winter's back." And Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky praised Root for a poem found in this collection saying, "'The Unbroken Diamond' is an extremely strong piece of work . . . this country needs badly. As fast as I know you are the only poet in the whole U.S. who had heart enough to address this subject (the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan). Your lines . . . surely redeem this nation."