Tom Sleigh's precision marks him as the diamond cutter of poetry; his verse has a tense musicality, and his ability to convey exact emotions, even the state of consciousness itself, is unerring.

—Best Books of the Year, New York Times Book Review

Tom Sleigh's second book of poems, Waking, is so fine one can hardly do justice to it in a review... The poet is at ease both in and out of forms, and there is a tense muscularity in his music... Mr. Sleigh is nearly as prodigal with his gifts as Yeats...

—Liz Rosenberg, New York Times Book Review

Waking is unflinchingly one of the important dark books of time.

                  —Susan Stewart, American Poetry Review