“Joan Stepp Smith’s poems renew our faith in the Word Made Flesh at the deepest level. Syncopated, mangled, phosphorescent, squirmy, elegantly and profoundly eccentric—these are the creations of a truly individual mind. A lover of language, an artful channeler of but partially glimpsed emotions and psychologies, this is a continuously surprising writer who truly deserves the title Poet. How many people open up whole new worlds? As a very famous old black man who played a mean guitar would say to me, “Right here.” And that’s what I feel about this poet. Right here.”
—Kris Saknussemm
“Joan Stepp Smith is a gifted poet. Her work reels with word play, musical language, allusion, and illusion. It is sensual and sexual. It provokes with startlingly original (often playful) language and leads the reader again and again into dark, intimate, dangerous territory. Beware, all who enter here: this book is riveting and unforgettable.”
—Susan Terris
“Joan Stepp Smith’s In A Pasture With Palominos is a one of the most exciting and original collections of poetry in recent years. Conceptually brilliant, verbally breathtaking and stylistically innovative, Joan Stepp Smith’s poetry invigorates and recalibrates all of the complex issues of art and experience. The pleasures of these poems are many, including the discovery of the poet’s complex narrative architectures and high-wire verbal antics [calisthenics?] that both surprise us and are able to alter a poem at moment’s notice.”
—David St. John
