"This book steps out of our culture of hectic voices and extravagant, self-aggrandizing gestures with a quietness that seems almost impossible. As Leax meditates on natural creatures, the land, memory, Chinese poetry, and the Psalms, he transforms himself into a trustworthy tour guide through a territory of profound solitude and stillness. Recluse Freedom is that rare thing—a book to sit with, to return to. In an age of jumpy bravado and addictive speed, it is a book to learn from. I love its restraint, its sly wit, and its wisdom."

"In Recluse Freedom, Leax delivers a series of profound descents—into language, into the flourishing phenomena of our surroundings, into the grittiness of our complicated lives—all of which avail for us the promise of continuing ascent. I am deeply grateful for his acute, compelling vision."

"Spanning twenty years, [this] collection shows us that long before Leax dropped the personal for the persona [in his 2004 collection, Tabloid News], he was already trying new things with his verse. . . . I confess that I have never enjoyed and admired his work as much as I did while reading the poems in [the] last two sections. I found myself stunned by their lucidity, wisdom, humanity, mature spirituality—and, yes, even by their authenticity. . . . [These are] his best poems to date."