Anley's poetry is remarkable for its delicacy and beautifully crafted verse. His love of poetry springs from a purer source than most poets can draw on. It has little to do with ""self-expression"" or displaying his techniques or pressing his ideas on his readers. His poetry works through intuition and feeling and what Plato called ""the further side of being."" His poems reveal a sense of the inexhaustible richness of nature and the immense value of just looking steadily at things without prejudice or preconception, patiently waiting for them to yield up their secrets.