“Olds writes “poetry more faithful to the felt truth of reality than any prose could be.” – Richard Wakefield.

Tempest has forged her own voice, unlike anything else in the mainstream poetry world. The Independent

We are born to bring light / To honour the blessing of each moment / The gift of every life - Malika Ndlovu

Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee, warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee. - Robert Burns 'Song: ae fond kiss and then we sever'

Woman! too long degraded, scorned, opprest; / O born to rule in partial Law's despite, / Resume thy native empire o'er the breast! ? Anna Laetitia Barbauld, 'The Rights of Women'

Who wants to know / a story's end, or where a road will go? - Sheenagh Pugh, 'What If This Road'

Dorothea Smartt reveals a poetic intelligence and maturity of form and content which definitely locates her among the best of her generation of poets. - Carol Boyce Davies

...and the poem will not care that some walk past/afraid of the words we try out on our tongues/ hoping this finally is the language of God, /that he might hear it and respond. Kei Miller, from 'Speaking in Tongues'.

All her poems have written underneath - 'I have seen it.' - Randall Jarrell

Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard. - Anne Sexton