... unflinching ... Helpless but not hapless, [Laux] deftly writes of heartbreak—the absolute, gutting, severe loss of the one who brought her into this world ... Laux is majestic ... The elegies accumulate, settle into our throats, drill down—her selected poems are gorgeous to revisit, but these new pieces are symphonic—and they become a perfect coda of grief.
Laux writes with startling directness of the physical and sexual abuse she and her sister suffered at the hands of her father ... But there are other poems, just as frank and openhearted, that celebrate the wondrousness of sex (so skillfully that fiction writers should take note) ... Beyond her admirable tenacity and spirit, Laux is just plain wise — and refreshingly unpretentious in her wisdom ... Laux’s new poems arrive at the end of the collection as a perfect finale, which benefits from what we now know of her life ... [Laux's poems allow us to] understand the bewildering complexity of this act of posthumous forgiveness, as well as the staggering generosity of the poet who committed it.
... [Laux] moves us ... [Laux] captures human sentiment and weaves emotions into multisensory landscapes with accurate details. Rich with detailed, layered poems, Only As the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems is a collection of Laux’s finest ... Only As the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems is a necessary addition to a home library. The poems demand multiple reads, and they will never escape one’s memory; they are permanent.
