“The characteristic stance of Al Zolynas' aptly titled Near and Far is one of enlightened bemusement. His poems enact the engagement of a consciousness with the immediate, sensory world. It is a consciousness more in love with uncertainty than with certainty (which "betrays"), and while aware of all the world's shoulds chooses to emphasize the is and are of things instead.

--Stephen Dunn, Pulitzer Prize Winner for Poetry, Different Hours, 2001