'In the lyrical tradition of Robert Frost and William Butler Yeats, Burt Porter's "A Spiral Wind" is a wise and lovely celebration of hawks and falcons, waterbirds and wildflowers, literature, love, family, and a life that couldn't possibly be better lived. "A Spiral Wind" is a testimony to the power of poetry to affirm and illuminate the natural world, and all of us beings who inhabit it, in all its many splendors." -Howard Frank Mosher, novelist, "Disappearances," "Where the Rivers Flow North"
'Burt Porter's poems have the strong and sturdy calm that comes from their regularly cadenced and rhymed verses, without sentimentality. These are straightforward, honest poems of love for this world: poems that embody a formal, down-home elegance in which we can clearly hear the legacy of Shakespeare, Marvel and Donne. Here also are the close and accurate observations of a knowledgeable countryman and an accomplished naturalist. This book is a treasure trove of country wisdom and insight, full of lessons from the wild."
-David Budbill, poet and playwright, "Judevine," "Moment to Moment: Poems of a Mountain Recluse"