Lance Strate has reached poetic Nirvana in his new collection First Letter of My Alphabet. Strate covers big philosophic territory with simplicity and exquisite language. This is truly a collection showcasing the sparkle of words spread wide and deep.

--Doris White, Professor of Language, Literature, Culture, and Writing, William Paterson University

This is an inspired, frightening hopeful book. Anchored in Hebraic tradition, some of Strate's poems call to mind the apocalyptic Dylan of Hard Rain, the Coleman Barks version of Rumi, and The Book of Revelations. But there is levity too-wit, wisdom and the lightning connectivity of 'wordplay' to take us laterally into unexpected illuminations. "It is not thought that confirms existence/that's putting Descartes in front of the horse's mouth." Remembrances of a 60s New York childhood are delightful and endearing while the more dire summoning of a parentage only made possible by survival of the Holocaust gives a profound grounding to Strate's wonders and questions: "how strange it is to be born from flames that never burned me." And so much more.

--Robert Priest, poet, playwright, and songwriter, author of Reading the Bible Backwards and If I Didn't Love the River

This personal collection of mnemonics moves me beyond measure. It is a playful masterpiece of persistence and patience. Lance Strate is simply the best poet I know.

--Michelle Shocked, singer-songwriter