“There is a quiet self-possession and maturity of vision in this volume…. Traction is an altogether impressive book of great tonal and formal range.”
—David Wojahn
“The poems in Traction are as lithe and limber, as powerful, as long distance swimmers—or, better yet, divers, with not a trace of fat, all flat muscle, lean grace, bent to spring. Mary Makofske is among the finer poets writing today—her intelligence and heart mesh constantly, like gears of silk and coats of mail.”
—William Pitt Root
“The poems bring us out of ourselves and toward an understanding of our own relationship to history.”
— Deborah Fleming
“The poems are intelligent and well-crafted. Makofske ranges widely from moving meditations on prehistory to an homage to Walt Whitman, love poems, family poems, poems about nature, mortality, and growing up in the fifties. These poems are not just for the eye but sound in the ear.”
—Marge Piercy