The Night When God Spoke French

“I have yet to encounter another volume of contemporary verse that manages so successfully and unapologetically as this one to evoke eternal things, of supreme value, while fully absorbing the claims of temporal human experience. The luminous—and numinous—character of this book, evident from its opening lyrical recollection of ‘That Night,’ is richly sustained throughout. And among the sundry gems displayed here, the closing couplet of Oliver’s reflection on ‘Brother Roger of Taizé at Ninety’ qualifies as unforgettable, simply dazzling.”

John Gatta

“I have admired the poetry of Raymond Oliver for over forty years. Oliver strives ‘to keep the old poetic forms alive’ and recognizes ‘the need to keep trying to say it right, / Plain truth in plain language . . .’ Yet this plainness is the lucid medium that reveals a world ‘stained / With wonder.’ In such verse the poet contemplates experiences and ideas in ways that are, in the deepest sense, humane. . . . Poems in this book contain much that the reader will want to recall. Oliver’s finest poems are a fusion of wisdom and craftsmanship of a very high order. Like the fallen snow this native New Englander loves to look out upon again and again, these poems reveal the essential forms of the divinely ordained beauty and meaning of a world the poet gazes on in wonder, then quietly seeks to understand, accept, and finally, praise.”

David Middleton