Middle Earth [is] a lyric reconsecration ... This new voice transfixes us by its incantatory clarity . . . A haunting exploration of the vulnerabilities of the speaking self.
—Maureen N. McLane, 
The New York Times Book Review

These are the poems of a conjurer, ceremonial and hypnotic ... [Cole] is also a remarkable fabulist, now writing the poems of his career.           —Dana Goodyear, 
Los Angeles Times Book Review