"The natural world as seen from a rowboat--close up, beneath us, and all around--achieves a stunning presence in this simple, straightforward poem, made all the more effective by way of its uncontrived diction, brilliant imagery, and a certain sense of understatement connecting the reader to something undeniably spiritual."
--Marilyn L. Taylor, previous poet laureate of the State of Wisconsin and the City of Milwaukee

". . . remarkably told in trenchant verse . . . a wail and a love-song . . . Of all the Lewisiana & Clarkian that flowed from their bicentennial . . . , this epic poem is the single most compelling."
--Robert Michael Pyle, author of Sky Time in Gray's River: Living for Keeps in a Forgotten Place

"Mark B. Hamilton's astonishing new full-length collection, OYO The Beautiful River, is a meditation on nature, the environment, and humanity. The poet reminds us that 'Time follows like a hound, / like a scent in the wind / in the bushes rushing past, ' and with 'Hidden Voices' 'The river clears out debris, sifting / and digesting, washing pollutants away.' However the poet also warns the reader that 'Factories will seem warm, even friendly; / flare stacks will be graceful under the billows of vapor, / those thin blankets that cover the land; / while children half-asleep will hear their parents / going off to work in little clouds of muffler smoke. / It will be the storm, and the coming of the storm.' It is Hamilton's deft skill that anchors the reader to each line throughout penetrating and wondrous landscapes."
--Leah Huete de Maines, editor, Finishing Line Press