Simpson's down-to-earth, commonsensical criticism is a pleasure to read. He has remarkably wide-ranging sympathies and tastes which he expresses in clear prose and a generosity of spirit. Partly, I suppose, my reaction is colored by the fact that he deals so much with the poets I first read and loved as a teenager in the late 60s and early 70s (Bly, Levertov, Merwin, et al), but i think it goes deeper than that. The book opens with some semi-autobiographical (or at least personal pieces) which are charming, but perhaps the weakest part of the volume. There follows a number of reviews and short critical articles, perceptive, clear, and blessedly free of academic cant, mostly written for the non-specialist periodical market. The last section is largely taken up with extended interviews from various sources in which Simpson explicates his straight-forward theory of poetry. This book is from the remarkable "Poets on Poetry" series from the University of Michigan Press. ( )