"Revealing the mystery and amazement contained in the quotidian, Ormsby's poetry has always been able to transmute the humblest object by virtue of his stunning gift for metaphor and his opulent exuberance of language. This is a poet whose verse rewards both the head and the heart, who can discover entire galaxies in a scrap of lichen, who can locate an entire lifetime of submerged emotion in the touch of an old woman's hand."

For a Modest God includes "The Ant Lion," as well as the poems "Starfish," "Skunk Cabbage" and "Origins." The Norton Anthology of Poetry (edited by Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy) features these latter poems in its most recent edition—placing Ormsby in the ranks of our greatest poets.