On Any Given Day:

""The Psalms soothe and empower the soul. And they stir and temper the passions. For sheer existential value, Any Given Day echoes the Davidian classic. Patti Tana is a classicist –– profoundly witty and provocative in addressing life's every offering, from the fleeting to its gravest of challenges....Any Given Day is prayerfully philosophical....Tana manages to extract dialogue and life from the seemingly inconsequential, even delivering images of impassioned eroticism with soothing control.

"Any Given Day is divided into sections, one of which is called Chai, the Hebrew word for life....This is where Tana soars. A tribute to her deceased mother....It is craftily construed and a testament to Tana's ambassadorial composure amid the pangs of imminent separation and loss....In essence, this homage transcends the human narrative and explores life’s deeper mysteries. But whatever life offers, Tana accepts graciously –– never resisting the dynamism of its ebb and flow. She yearns without overindulgence, and may have well found the key to authentic living. Life is ever rich and infinite –– even in the face of human vulnerability.

"In so many ways, Any Given Day is a triumph over fear, insularity, and psychic imprisonment. Any given day life is worthy of celebration –– unreservedly. With inimitable style, Tana delivers the best of existentialism with eloquent clarity. Markedly ingenious and resourceful, Any Given Day beckons us in diverse ways to find meaning and value in all our experiences."
– Dr. Grenville Ashby, "Poet delivers in this period of reflection,"
The Trinidad Guardian Newspaper. Read the entire review here.

On How Odd This Ritual of Harmony:

"There is a quality of controlled energy allied with a precise ear for rhythmic cadence in Patti Tana's poetry that I find quite impressive. Add to that a social conscience and a penetrating mind that deals aptly with contemporary experience, and you have a first class poet."
– Richard Cloke, San Fernando Poetry Journal.

"The volume reads as much as a story would with episodes thus far along the road. The book speaks of a woman who has found a balance between the feminist/teacher/poet side of her life and the traditional roles of wife/ mother/daughter. How Odd This Ritual of Harmony brings together seventy-four poems about growing into a person in a space of one's own."
– Karen Perlman, SunStorm

On Wetlands:

"How directly and satisfyingly these poems connect with life! They form a series of pictures that converge in an over-arching myth. I'll pack this book along with me and cherish it."
– William Stafford

"In Wetlands, sensitive stories and poems form a collection that's beautifully united: seamless in style, with themes drawn from a world in which oceans and streams and amniotic fluid are all one. An ample display of fresh and exciting talent."
– X. J. Kennedy

"Patti Tana has the power to take us to the edge of our terrors – and then return us safely, with quiet dignity, to a strength and vision we did not know we had."
– Barbara Ehrenreich

On When the Light Falls Short of the Dream:

"Sensuous, emotional, and spiritually uplifting, Patti Tana's poems speak to the poignant realities of life, loss, and relationship."
– Wendy Maltz

"Tender poems." – Peter Schlosser

On Make Your Way Across This Bridge: New & Selected Writings:

"Listen to this mature poet make something of the nothing always threatening to silence us. The sense of loveliness is always in conflict with a darker knowledge. Strong poems to my hear. The clear and moving poems here combine for a fine, welcome, wide-ranging, memorable, healing book."
– William Heyen

"Tana writes with a Proustian sense of shared experience. 'Silver Dollars' contains a line I plan to repeat like a mantra: 'The soul needs sweets.' These poems are rich, delicious, and they make you glad you are alive."
– Ellen Rosenthal Ferguson

"Patti Tana captures the sweetness and the harshness of this life we love. She keeps the heart of things visible."
– Hedda Marcus

"From the first, Tana's voice reveals an individual enthralled with the visceral and tactile elements of personhood, weaving a spell into the moment to produce images and situations that are richly passionate and illuminated with a balance of grace and intensity."
– George Wallace, Poetrybay

"The reason for the growing popularity of Tana's works is how the poet speaks to the reader. Her voice soft and sweet, at times a little playful. Other times strong and loud, probing, questioning, opening the mind. In the next poem, sensual, revealing – without embarrassment. She speaks directly to things that pass through our lives every day – but she removes the clutter. What remains is dignity."
– John-Charles Carey, The Village News

On This Is Why You Flew Ten Thousand Miles:

"How well your words facilitate the great projects of living and dying!"
– Ralph Nazareth

"Love the title of your new book, and the title poem has a haiku
weightlessness that lets the reader float above the poem. Many of
these poems move through dream imagery and night thoughts, so 'This Is Why You Flew Ten Thousand Miles' centers the collection – a bright, glittering daytime poem with the sweet ineffable utterance of a child at the end.

"It is your ability to find resolution and comfort even in pain that braces all your poems. Your darkest poems always manage to surface with a collective and loving smile of acceptance and an embrace of the real."
– Robert Karmon

On "Skin Knows Skin" (nominated for the Pushcart Prize):

"A testament to physical love expressed as an ever-widening force of nature."
– Gayl Teller

On Songs of Seasoned Women:

"'Songs of Seasoned Women' is the ultimate in visualizing women's experiences and concerns through the metaphoric lens. This is an extraordinary collection."
– Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr., First Nassau County Poet Laureate

"In a society that tends to ignore the wisdom and vibrancy of its elders, instead choosing to fawn over and worship the young, the anthology 'Songs of Seasoned Women' is a welcome addition both to the literary world and to the culture as a whole."
– Mankh (Walter E. Harris III), Allbook Books

On Any Given Day:

"The poems of 'Any Given Day' are extraordinary for the feelings they convey. Many lines transmit a shock of recognition and become the memorable words that heal a sense of loss. Patti Tana’s voice is natural yet eloquent. Her poems are passionate, humorous, philosophical. Language gives meaning to our life and has the power to enlarge our soul. Tana’s poems help us face death and live life with grace."
– Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr., First Nassau County Poet Laureate