For decades, Piercy’s work has fascinated, flabbergasted, intrigued, angered, and shocked readers, but it is rarely overlooked. As a young writer, Piercy had trouble publishing her fiction and poetry because of its controversial nature—1950s America was not ready for it. However, the 1960s ushered in a new American era. Suddenly, Piercy’s views on feminism, racism, and politics were shared by a great number of people. Critics began taking her work seriously and, for over thirty years since, have lauded her work for its powerful voice, striking metaphors, and direct address of contentious subjects that some writers avoid.

In Judaism, critic Steven P. Schneider writes:

Piercy displays the full range of her voice and poetic imagination in The Art of Blessing the Day. Although she claims that being a woman and a Jew is “sometimes more / of a contradiction than I can sweat out,” she shows in this volume that she is adroit enough to walk the tightrope between those identities that intersect in surprising and unusual ways in these poems.

In a review in Poetry of Piercy’s What Are Big Girls Made Of, which was published two years before The Art of Blessing the Day, critic John Taylor asserts, “These feminist poems may stir listeners who hear them read aloud . . . yet their language resembles that of rallying cries. It is a language confident in its power to designate and deplore.” If any one word may be used to sum up the general character of Piercy’s poetry, it is “confident.” Despite her dubious beginnings in the publishing world, she is today a strong voice in contemporary American poetry.