Alice Walker has always turned to poetry to express some of her most personal and deeply felt concerns. She has said that her poems-even the happy ones-emerge from an accumulation of sadness, when she stands again €œin the sunlight.€ €œ[This collection] has two fine strengths-a music that comes along sometimes, as sad and cheery as a lonely woman€™s whistling-and Miss Walker€™s own tragicomic gifts€ (New York Times Book Review).