"Imagine a box of precious jewels. Or perhaps string after string of luminescent pearls. These jewels, these pearls each carry within them a small glimmer of truth, of wisdom, of stern instruction, and unconditional love."

~John L. Stanizzi

"Merritt's wonderful (wonder-full) poems represent years of sacred pondering, and reflect an open, inquisitive, faithful, loving mind and heart."

~Connie Wanek

"Donna Marie Merritt gives readers a beautiful gift."

 ~Judy Christie

"These poems, which somehow manage the difficult trick of being both wise and wickedly funny, remind you of why we are so lucky to be here, and here together."

~George Bilgere

"I found the poems knife cuttingly precise in their intelligence and human observations and I discovered myself haunted by them days after I’d read them."

~Bruce Cohen

"She has a tender yet potent way of imbuing the little things with greater purpose."

~John Sibley Williams

"Donna Marie Merritt writes with authentic vulnerability."

~Loretta Diane Walker

"She is able to find pleasure through 'delicate precision / pencil on paper.'"

~Faith Shearin

"Through honest and straightforward images, Donna Marie Merritt’s poems navigate the wonders freely given us."

~Jeffrey C. Alfier

"Merritt's poignant work resonates with true realities, giving reasons to see ourselves as we should."

~Lee Bennett Hopkins

"Donna Marie Merritt fluidly navigates a trompe-l'oeil landscape of roiling emotions to discover and lay claim to the polestar, perseverance."

~J. Patrick Lewis

"I love the poems and the spare writing, the quiet pacing, creating tension. Powerfully understated, taut and personal…"

~Sylvia Vardell

"These intimate notes provide a tender testimony to the healing power of undying love."

~Charles Ghigna

"Merritt is a poet of the domestic sphere whose work reminds me of translations from a language I could never know were she not a writer."

~Jericho Brown

"Donna Marie Merritt takes us through times of stress, worry, and everyday routines with honesty, insight, and humor."

~Mary Harwell Sayler

"Merritt's work is packed with the real thing, moving human experience artfully expressed."

~Dave Morrison

 "Merritt reminds me that the best poetry is simply written in the same vein as one of America's greatest poets, Ogden Nash, without the embellishments of academia or the arrogance of abstraction."

~Marie Lecrivain

"This poet goes right to the core of the human experience and plays on every nerve fiber as if plucking the strings on a Stradivarius."

~Joanne Greco Rochman

"Come take a walk with Donna Marie Merritt, as she explores various topics for our times, bearing witness to our troubled world."

~Barbara Crooker

"Donna's accessible and direct language uncovers the heart and dreams of her subjects, offering up the possibility of a better world."

~Richard Michelson

"Deeply human and humane, Donna Marie's poems provide a glimmer of hope in a world buffeted with disheartening news."

~Ginny Lowe Connors

"She is a committed poet who understands life, and whose poems will endure."

~David Kherdian

"Donna Marie Merritt's poems are the work of a plainspoken, big-hearted poet."

~David Huddle