Richard Tillinghast, another contributor, says of the collection, “The Wilderness, a compendious gathering of new and selected poems, makes clear what readers of hers over the years have increasingly come to feel—that Maurya Simon’s is one of the strongest, most humane, imaginative, compassionate, and flat-out brilliant voices of her generation. The sensual immediacy of her vision, her explorations of non-western traditions, and the ease with which she moves between present-day America and other cultural milieus and historical periods—all of this is dazzling. I don’t think she is capable of writing a bad line. Readers of poetry who may have been unfamiliar with Simon’s work up till now should sit up and take notice.”