Review
Clark writes skillfully in both free verse and traditional forms. . . . While free verse predominates in this collection, the poet also demonstrates masterful control of such complicated verse forms as the villanelle (in his elegant title poem) and the sestina (in "Passage"). . . . The vividness of Clark's images, the evocative patterns of imagery he uses to unify this volume, the musical effects he achieves, the variety of his poetic forms, and his overarching thematic structure-all enliven and enrich this book -- Appalachian Journal, Fall 1998
Dancing on Canaan's Ruins is a book of poems filled with singing, an elegiac lyricism, I think, for hills and mountains which, of course, have a special kind of music, as different and distinct as the locale itself. The title poem, a villanelle, tells us, as the old song does, that the soul never dies -- The Pilot, March 9, 1998
Timelessness. Landscape. Self. Change. Word. Song. These thematic touchstones are reasons to recommend Dancing on Canaan's Ruins to readers interested in the region of the Appalachians. They are also reasons to recommend it to readers interested in the qualities of memorable poetry. More than an evocation of a region, it is an evocation of the soul inspected -- Journal of Appalachian Studies, Fall 1998
Dancing on Canaan's Ruins is a book of poems filled with singing, an elegiac lyricism, I think, for hills and mountains which, of course, have a special kind of music, as different and distinct as the locale itself. The title poem, a villanelle, tells us, as the old song does, that the soul never dies -- The Pilot, March 9, 1998
Timelessness. Landscape. Self. Change. Word. Song. These thematic touchstones are reasons to recommend Dancing on Canaan's Ruins to readers interested in the region of the Appalachians. They are also reasons to recommend it to readers interested in the qualities of memorable poetry. More than an evocation of a region, it is an evocation of the soul inspected -- Journal of Appalachian Studies, Fall 1998
From the Back Cover
While I think it is fair to characterize this brilliant book as wistful and regretful, I cannot say that it is disheartening. Rather the opposite. If it is our sad experiences that most make us what we are, then what we are makes those experiences valuable . . . . Jim Clark has written not merely a strong and genuine first book, but a more accomplished and more interesting book than most of the books by more celebrated poets. A beautiful beginning-and more, much more, than that.-Fred Chappell
Jim Clark's first collection consists of forty-four poems amounting to a spiritual autobiography. The gathering's three sections and coda trace a development comprising a coming of age (In Tennessee), spiritual journeying (Setting Out), and affirmation despite loss and alienation (Dancing on Canaan's Ruins). What Clark affirms, again and again, is the transfiguring power of poetry; the language is arresting and engaging. Dancing on Canaan's Ruins is not a miscellany, either. The forty-four poems do succeed in being one poem, finally, a sustained imaging of a single theme.-Jim Wayne Miller
