“Dietz often makes the ordinary world interesting by being dissatisfied with it. . . . There’s wariness here about invention, the fear of sham happiness, in consort with the sense that some activity, some making, must be offered up in order for happiness to be earned. Those conflicting imperatives frequently register in the intricate energy of Dietz’s descriptions, which are often sonically dense, carefully lineated, grammatically complex, and observed with imaginative precision.”

Slate

“Just ordinary everyday experiences. Death, for instance, oh and a child gets his fingers acetoned by a toothbrush for trying to help a wounded expiring bird, its ‘Black eyes visible through skeins / of lids,’ its ‘soft pink belly like a clam.’ And there’s the ‘gossamer ice’ of a frozen river, like ‘bright / metal hammered fine as the / ghost of the ghost of a moon.’ And the birth of a baby, ‘every one / of its live cells singing / Hosanna for “we praise / you” and “please save / us” as being trains its / way into the lighted room. . . .’ Things like that.  Everyday instances. All these extraordinary human things, the pleasure and the pain, sung about in a versification which is a radiant celebratory light shining on them.”

David Ferry