SOURCE: Gilbert, Sandra. “Extraordinary Words.” The Women's Review of Books 17, no. 1 (October 1999): 6-7.

In the following essay, the author favorably reviews Stone's Ordinary Words, paying special attention to Stone's fascination with ornithology, botany and metaphysics. The author finds Stone's meditations upon the ordinary “refreshing.”

I should begin by confessing at once that I've admired the extraordinary words of Ruth Stone's poetry for more than a quarter of a century now, and for almost as many years have wondered why her distinguished and distinctive art isn't more widely known. I'm of course delighted that Paris Press has chosen to issue this new collection in celebration of the poet's 84th birthday—but at the same time I'm bemused by this turn of events. Since Stone will be 85 in the year 2000, it seems to me that some major New York publisher—a Farrar Straus or a Knopf—should really be planning...