The Vigil

"The new poems are less obsessive than we expect from Williams, though no less focused. They are more relaxed and more lyrical, and they have expanded Williams's range to include those realms that once seemed too far off course for him to reach comfortably. The best poems in The Vigil don't ram in the details but rather gather them up and work with them, inter-leaving them with memories and thoughts to achieve a memorable, expansive eloquence."—George Weld, The Boston Book Review

"Williams is an undeniably great and original writer; his long-lined poems wrestle and nag at their subjects, sinewy, tightening—they are not 'emotion recollected in tranquillity' but acts of recognition, memory, realization . . . in which every nervy qualification is actually the mind stripping itself down to honesty."—Robert Potts, The Guardian (London)

"It is [his] tenderness for human frailties which makes Williams such a moving poet, and his patient questioning of . . . complex moral and philosophical problems which makes him an important one."—Sarah Maguire, The Independent on Sunday (London)

"The compelling poems in The Vigil testify to the ripening of [his] voice, a voice that has made Williams one of the most original and forceful poets of our time."—Rita Signorelli-Pappas, The Trenton Times

"The Vigil is a marvellous collection, and will only confirm Williams's importance. He is certainly one of the most influential poets writing in the language at the moment, and one of the best."—Conor O'Callaghan, Poetry Ireland Review

"Williams is writing poems whose heavy gravitational pull consists of those rarely used portions of our psyche's lexicon. It's exhilarating to hear this kind of dialogue—sometimes formal discourse, somtimes private chat, never small talk—between the gut and the brain. It's a sweet and generous sound."—Dionisio D. Martinez, The Georgia Review