Phillips has been considered an important American poet ever since the publication of his first collection of poems, In the Blood, in 1992. That book, which won the Morse Poetry Prize, prompted Publishers Weekly to describe Phillips as “an unusually accomplished and innovative poet,” noting that he had “developed his own painful but luminous method” of examining the world. His reputation has grown since that book, up to and including The Rest of Love, the book in which “All It Takes” appears.

In her review of The Rest of Love for Library Journal, Barbara Hoffert wrote, “As always, Phillips's poems breathe quietude, but despite the wintry tone he seems ready for a reckoning, facing up to a traitorous world . . . and wrestling politely with God. . . . The results are polished and penetrating.” Robert Phillips (no relation to the poet) wrote in his review of the book in the Hudson...