"There is lush music to Menes's first book, and this lushness may arise from his subject, namely the Caribbean islands, particularly Cuba, his parents' homeland. He writes of its populace - the dock worker, the sugar cane worker, the worker slaving at all trades - and the loveliness of the island's ecosystems, along with its religions. These are bewitching poems with beguiling vocabulary - kanawa, Wewee, Ochún, mayito, iyá, Yobu. In these words alone, we have the mystery of poetry."
—Gary Soto, Ploughshares
"Orlando Ricardo Menes is not only a compelling poet, he's a storyteller, telling his stories in the first person or in a charged and compressed narrative. The poet touches all bases - magic realism, humor, irony, horror, mystery, mysticism - laced with references to tropical flora, fauna, history, and the melding of African and European religious mythologies."
—The Caribbean Writer