[Thomas] considers himself primarily a poet, even in his fiction, which shares with his verse a preoccupation, or rather, an obsession, with sex and death. [In Selected Poems, the] graveyards and scenes of departure, particularly of Mother, are sufficiently depressing. But the "love" poems are more unpleasant. Though filled with sexual details, language, and symbols, the impression these often coarse and quirky lines convey is not so much erotic or sensual as gross and fetid. The voyeuristic camera sweeps over scenes of sweaty passion but is often obscured by a filter smudged with murky imagery scraped from that catch basin conveniently called the collective unconscious. Yet there is a curious mix of sparseness, even Oriental subtlety, amid these gross contrivances, unfortunately not extended to the tortured language, which is singularly without music or charm.

A review of "Selected Poems," in Booklist, Vol. 79, No. 4, October 15, 1982, p. 290.