Calamity's Quilt: Reviews "Janet Buck is a passionate poet, her verse stately and elegant. Calamity's Quilt, to me, is poetic passion made manifest. The lines and language profound and powerful. What is distinctive too about this collection is the unpretentious honesty of vision. When I read Calamity's Quilt I marvel at the intensity of subject rendered in the song-sweet voice that is Janet Buck. A voice that is unassuming and intelligent. Her work is fresh, intense and clear. Construction is simple and I am struck by unmasked emotion, supported and executed by poetic skill. This collection of poems by Janet Buck is an excursion and exploration of the soul." --Doug Tanoury, renowned poet and founder of The Athens Poetry Circle and Funky Dog Publishing "Janet Buck has been published all over the place, and with good reason. She breathes, no aches, life into the poem, shares her frenzied trials and fear in a fearless fashion. For her, the word is life and it shows through her poems. Read Janet Buck and you'll learn something you'll always remember." --Scott Holstad, widely published poet and Pulitzer Prize nominee "Wow, what outstanding use of language in these exceptional poems! I see the title reference here clearly, this magnificent patchwork of language that carries the reader into a realm of every-changing images and parallel realities that defy convention. An absolutely stunning effect." --Jim Chandler, Thunder Sandwich "Janet Buck has a unique, concise, rhythmic voice. Her stark world, of diamonds in septic tanks, of 'pawns of strife', is sad and memorable, and she guides us through it without compromise or self-pity." --Jonathan Wallace, The Ethical Spectacle "Poems like Assumption, with its rich and textured images, set a spiritual tone that is controlled, yet creates intensity in the reader's mind. This work is an eloquent forty-seven line tribute to a woman who died; I wondered, was she forty-seven? I love poems that make me ask that sort of question. Other poems like Popped Umbrellas, reflect the poet's love of imagery and language. This collection brings together the narrative and lyric in a unique contribution to contemporary poetry, one that is in a well-grounded voice. --Kay Day, poet and editor "Janet Buck writes dense tightly packed poetry of undoubted quality." --Douglas Clark, Lynx: Poetry from Bath "Janet Buck's tenacious style pulls the reader into a world of witty wordplay and raw, immediate emotion. We laugh, cry, suffer, and triumph with her through relationships, disabilities and countless surgeries. As we experience the highs and lows of her successes and failures, we truly get to know the poet. For me, that is the best reason to read poetry, to be thrust inside another's skin, and to experience life the way the poet experiences it. Janet Buck has that ability and "Calamity's Quilt" is an impressive collection, brimming with all the passions and stubborn strength of character one finds throughout the body of her work. I have been proud to present this talented poet online in both The Horsethief's Journal and The Green Tricycle, and look forward to continuing to do so in the future." --Barbara Benepe, Publisher, Cayuse Press