"Starred review. As erudite, as full of allusion and citation, as the work of any other poet full of the history of his craft, these poems are as straightforward in expression, as plain in vocabulary as any strict literary modernist could wish... Exquisite." "Orr pulls at the root of all heart ache." "[River Inside the River is] a striking meditation on art's free-standing place in the natural world and of the feeling of rightness, of restitution, even resurrection-not of bodies, but of the sense of having been justified and hence forgiven by the thing that we do, this art."
David Rigsbee "For four decades, Gregory Orr has been among a small handful of poets who make me proud to be among their generation of writers. Orr's new book is a wonder, exploring such weighty themes as the sources of love, the sources of mourning, the working of redemption and memory, the ways in which these give rise to poetic utterance ... all in language as light as airborne thistledown. For such powerful lyric importance to come from such small deft breaths requires both mastery and magic; both are plentiful here, on every page."
Albert Goldbarth "This is a book that is both reflective and ecstatic. It embraces an extended meditation but casts a spell through lyric impulse. It is incendiary, inventive, incantatory. It is erotic. It is, indeed, irresistible."
Ilya Kaminsky "Gregory Orr's poems have always had the stunning ability to place mindfulness almost instantly back inside the mind. Once again, a river inhabits its true banks, and a soul, its boundless person."
Naomi Shihab Nye "Orr's writing feels transcendent. Language shines, shimmers, delights, and rises as high as it can."
Elizabeth Lund "Orr ranks as a great seer, casting a mythic spell over the reader with his technically attuned verse."
Arlice Davenport