Collected Poems
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- $22.99
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
Winner Gish Prize for Lifetime Achievement
A representative collection of the life work of the much-honored poet and a founder of the Black Arts movement, spanning the 4 decades of her literary career.
Gathering highlights from all of Sonia Sanchez’s poetry, this compilation is sure to inspire love and community engagement among her legions of fans. Beginning with her earliest work, including poems from her first volume, Homecoming (1969), through to 2019, the poet has collected her favorite work in all forms of verse, from Haiku to excerpts from book-length narratives. Her lifelong dedication to the causes of Black liberation, social equality, and women’s rights is evident throughout, as is her special attention to youth in poems addressed to children and young adults.
As Maya Angelou so aptly put it: “Sonia Sanchez is a lion in literature’s forest. When she writes she roars, and when she sleeps other creatures walk gingerly.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a haiku that appears toward the end of this collected, Sanchez writes: "i am who i am./ nothing hidden." It's a small poem, tucked into a hefty collection that spans ages, loves, and histories, but it epitomizes Sanchez's vulnerability and ability to translate daily life, Blackness, and passion into language. In her work, one notices the sadness of a woman "alone/ amid all this noise" but also joy, in, for instance, a poem dedicated to "dcs 8th graders—1966–67": "look at us/ 8th grade/ we are black/ beautiful and our black/ ness sings out." There is also an inherent playfulness; in a poem for a two-year-old child, Sanchez writes: "if i cud ever write a poem as beautiful/ as u, little 2/ yr/ old/ brotha,/ poetry wud go out of bizness." Life is "like an echo of nostalgia," she declares, and missing someone is "like/ spring standing still on a hill/ amid winter snow." In another haiku, Sanchez mourns: "what is it about/ me that i claim all the wrong/ lives, the same endings?" Sanchez has lived a rich life, writing devoutly throughout. This collection serves as a testament to that life, inviting readers to learn to live more fully, and to protest, rage, and love.
