"The Hut Beneath the Pine" was a finalist for the 2012 Oregon Book Award, sponsored by Oregon Literary Arts. In his judge's statement, American poet, writer, and Academy of American Poets Chancellor Carl Phillips writes: "I admire here how simplicity doesn't have to compromise authority. How, in fact, the spare directness of attention can often be more persuasive. Reminiscent of the Tang poets...I think of Wang Wei...these poems allow us to 'shake off the dust of the world, ' meanwhile quietly illuminating the tea ceremony's role as a possible way toward the Tao, toward 'letting whatever unfolds be enough.'" Commenting on this collection of 32 tea-infused poems, award-winning poet and author Margaret Chula says: "Reading these poems, I feel like I'm in a Sung dynasty landscape painting, sitting in a mountain hut with a sage who pours me tea and recites poetry. The poems in 'The Hut Beneath the Pine' embody the spirit of the Tao, the rhythmic flow of nature."

"Overall, this is a powerful work that touches, delights, and amazes." --Judge: Writer's Digest 21st Annual Book Awards. "In This Forest of Monks" was selected as a finalist in both the Poetry and the Spirituality categories of the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards (judge in Poetry: Kenneth Salzmann. Judge in Spirituality: Richard Cook). It also received the following review/statement from the judge of the 21st Annual Writer's Digest Book Awards: "In This Forest of Monks" examines inner and outer worlds--the poet's life as a Trappist monk and his return visit to the forest surrounding the abbey from which he was expelled years earlier; and the monks' spiritual world and its connection to the physical world. The poet accomplishes this with great skill and art. The writing is excellent; the Han Shan-inspired pieces are simple, clean, and direct. The longer poems are crafted with utmost care and clarity, always with lovely texture and sound. Even when recounting the pain of the poet's expulsion from monastic life, the poems create a serenity in the reader, as if reading were part meditation. There are some stunning, fresh metaphors, such as '...incense rising out/of the puffing thurible of my body' in 'Hiking the Hill That Overlooks the Trappist Abbey Prior to First Vespers of Christmas, 1990.' The poet aids the success of such images and other references by providing a glossary/notes section that defines terms and identifies points of geography; this thoughtful inclusion adds greatly to the reader's enjoyment of these poems. Often religious icons and imagery are grafted to aspects of nature, as in 'Portal' where an old monk's 'fingers and the twigs of trees' pray 'their rosary beads of rain.' The poet, though, also describes an agonized yearning and sense of mourning as he stands on the outside looking in at the setting of his previous life. An exquisite example of this is 'Through the Cloister Fence' as the poet weeps counting the cemetery crosses that have appeared since his departure; monks have died and the trees he planted are green, but 'Which ones, or how many, who can say?' The material is organized in sections that create a narrative, starting with nine poems addressing the poet's expulsion in 1992; then a section of poems about his years in monastic life; and finally, poems of return. Physically, the volume is nicely done, with an enhanced photo of a forest path that's both colorful and appropriately mystical...Overall, this is a powerful work that touches, delights, and amazes."

"The Tao of Now" was listed as one of the "150 outstanding Oregon poetry books" for Oregon's sesquicentennial in 2009 by David Biespiel, editor of "Poetry Northwest," and Jim Scheppke, Oregon State Librarian. Commenting on this collection, Oregon Poet Laureate Paulann Petersen writes: "This avatar of the Tao Te Ching comes to us as a contemporary, familiar creature, an incarnation both timeless and timely. In 'The Tao of Now, ' Daniel Skach-Mills gives us wisdom as refreshing and new as this moment's wind in the trees, wisdom as secure in tradition as the cardinal directions with which we name any wind's path." In addition, editor and publisher Ken Arnold writes: "'The Tao of Now' shows us ourselves in eighty-one poems that, like the ancient Tao Te Ching, offer no answers. But they do challenge us to go beyond the intellect and reconnect with wisdom in a time of desperate need. As the author writes, 'The contemporary urgency for a consciousness and heart revolution is no longer an option if the planet, and humanity as a species, are to survive.' His poems are here to help us make that shift. Aimed not at the thinking mind but at that part of our being which already knows the truth of what is here, Daniel Skach-Mills' poems are more like a remembering than a teaching. Each one calls us back to another voice but leaves us right where it finds us. These writings stand as a contemporary witness that the eternal Tao is alive and well, if people would only unplug, unwind, and take the time to listen with their whole Being."