"If poetry could be held in the hand, without even reading it, The Delicate Work of Song would be its physical expression. The first sensation one has when holding it is the weightless, silky feeling of its polished, red cedar boards. How can anything with substance be so light? The substance, paradoxically, is reduction- – the multiple meanings of the barest phrases, strung together like prisms reflecting light. Ronald Baatz doesn’t call his poetry haiku– he refers to his writing as “small poems,” a modest descriptor that delivers deeply satisfying nourishment. Baatz is a craftsman who is both well-known and not known well enough. He has been published in journals and collections, but Seastone is the only printer who has issued Baatz’s poetry in private press editions. Noting his paramount talent in this form, Michael McClintock, President of the United Haiku and Tanka Society commented, 'The high art of the short poem has no master more accomplished than Ronald Baatz.'

“Carolee Campbell... commented: 'It is so alive in the hand; like a brown egg that just might hatch while you’re holding it.' ”

Ruth R.Rogers, Materialia Lumina, The Codex Foundation, Berkeley, 2022, pgs. 288 - 289.