Richard Jackson

Keeping the sonnet structure, these poems vary from "riffs" to loose translations of Petrarch's poems.

" Petrarch is the spark, but Jackson's the one on fire."
-Marvin Bell

"Richard Jackson makes me love Petrarch again, his personifications and conceits, his metaphysics, his profound intelligence, his heart. Here is our first modern poet reinvented. And here is the poet -- Rick Jackson -- with the heart to do it, with sweep and vision."
-Gerald Stern

"Jackson's method might be termed 'appreciations,' in that what he is after is a Petrarch in thrall as much as he is in love, in doubt as often as he is certain -- a Petrarch willing, in other words, to demonstrate, not simply articulate, his longing. Jackson casts the sonnets and canzone in the embracing bear hug of his own style, which means full lines filled with mixtures of image as well as multilevels of energy."
-Stanley Plumly