Winner of the American Book Award
A classic of the Black Arts Movement brought back to life in a refreshed edition
“A lion in literature’s forest. When she writes she roars, and when she sleeps other creatures walk gingerly.”—Maya Angelou
Originally published in 1984, this collection of prose, prose poems, and lyric verses is as fresh and radical today as it was then. Sonia Sanchez, the premiere poet of the Black Arts Movement, shows the “razor blades” in clenched in her teeth in these powerful pieces.
About the Series
Celebrating Black Women Writers reissues and revives Beacon Press’s previously published literary works by Black women. The series uplifts exceptional work written by Black women in honor of their stories, lives, and experiences throughout history and beyond.
“Sonia Sanchez’s poetry is a must for all readers. Period.”
—Essence
“With an unblinking and critical poet’s eye, Sonia Sanchez has been setting her readers straight, telling the ‘terrible beauty,’ and reflecting images in ways that simultaneously solicit tears and laughter . . . . She has not given up the struggle to let her poetry be what she refers to as a ‘call to arms’ for her people.”
—Juanita Johnson-Bailey, Ms.
“Only a poet with an innocent heart can exorcise so much pain with so much beauty.”
—Isabel Allende
“Sonia Sanchez is a lion in literature’s forest. When she writes she roars, and when she sleeps other creatures walk gingerly. . . . This world is a better place because of Sonia Sanchez: move livable, more laughable, more manageable. I wish millions of people knew that some of the joy in their lives comes from the fact that Sonia Sanchez is writing poetry.”
—Maya Angelou
“Her songs of destruction and loss scrape the heart; her praise songs thunder and revitalize. We need these songs for our journey together into the next century.”
—Joy Harjo
THE POWER OF LOVE
Poem No. 10
Welcome Home, My Prince
After the Fifth Day
Haiku
Story
Haiku
“Just Don’t Never Give Up on Love”
BLUES IS BULLETS
Poem Written After Reading Wright’s “American Hunger”
Blues
Norma
Depression
Ballad
To All Brothers: From All Sisters
Poem No. 12
A Song
After Saturday Night Comes Sunday
BEYOND THE FALLOUT
Bluebirdbluebirdthrumywindow
Haiku
I Have Walked a Long Time
Kaleidoscope
On Passing thru Morgantown, Pa.
Masks
On Seeing a Pacifist Burn
Traveling on an Amtrak Train Could Humanize You
GRENADES ARE NOT FREE
Bubba
A Poem for Paul
From a Black Feminist Conference
Haiku
A Letter to Ezekiel Mphahlele
Reflections After the June 12th March for Disarmament
A Letter to Dr. Martin Luther King
MIAS
About the Author