In an article for the Nation. James Longenbach heralded Black Zodiac as Charles Wright's "most richly satisfying single book", adding that "he has emerged as a poet whose every line seems completely recognizable and at the same time utterly fresh". These are poems suffused with spiritual longing, lyrical meditations on faith, religion, heritage, and morality that also explore aging and mortality with restless grace. Entering by way of small moments, Wright magnifies details to reveal a truth much larger than the quotidian happening that engendered it. The result is an astonisning, flexible poetry that, as Helen Vendler has observed, makes Wright a poet who "sounds like nobody else".