"I have been following the poetry of Michael Waters for many years," fellow poet Ted Kooser wrote, "and have never been disappointed by his books. His poems can be counted on to be warm, open, friendly, original, and sometimes deceptively simple" ( Georgia Review, Fall 1990). Beyond such general terms, though, Waters's poetry is difficult to classify. He is a virtuoso of variety; there is no "typical" Waters poem. In Poetry (May 1990) Steven Cramer called attention to Waters's "dizzying variety of stylistic selves and verbal registers." Roger Mitchell, also writing for Poetry (January 1986), referred to Waters as "a confessional poet writing at a time when confessionalism has been discredited--wrongfully discredited, I would say ...." Yet the most extensive interview with Waters is included in a book titled The Post-Confessionals (1989), and his poems are rarely personal in any solipsistic way--most of them centering on subjects outside himself. Neither are Waters's poems coldly...