Jove Protected by Geese
Praise

A strong book, physically handsome. There's blood and meat in great measure, and raw emotions. If I were asked if I know Cooper Esteban, I would have to say yes and no. I know the congenial librarian and book-collector. I do not know the poet. I admire all the poems; I understand them as strange configurations in which the sense is sensual, strange, and unusual. They have a beauty that makes me shudder (like watching a surgeon at work). They are severe in craftsmanship and severe in their demands on an aesthetic sense less brave than the poet's. And are, by golly, original, copycatting nobody.

--Guy Davenport

Superb! What a wonder of work--content, presentation! Bauman and Esteban, Esteban and Bauman make for a noble team, by gum, don't they? This is going on my night-table, where not even DeLillo gets to go. Deron, you are a publisher. Esteban, you are a poet, an honorific I have used with greater infrequency than I have cyanide in my corn flakes.

--Gordon Lish

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