With Canticle of the Night Path, Jennifer Atkinson sets in motion a deeply compelling sequence of praise songs. Whether their origins are remote in time or close to hand, the objects of her praise become intricately connected as each is illuminated in turn--by electric light, by candle-light, by lightning. She models a patient attention that gives way to sudden insights and the reader is transported by the clarity and music of her forms. —Susan Stewart, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and MacArthur Fellow