RaveWashington Independent Review of BooksWhat struck me first is how fully formed [Clifton\'s] early work was ... Most of all, we see what would become a keystone in the work to come ... Though there are many poems for or about men in these pages, this selection reinforces Clifton’s insistence on celebrating the quiet heroism of women’s lives. One of her many gifts was how she could connect those individual lives to a greater arc, often achieved through her aforementioned stunning way with an ending ... Praise is due, as well, to Girmay’s lucid and lyrical foreword to the collection, which establishes the foundations of Clifton’s enduring legacy. Beloved in life, Clifton continues, posthumously, to influence generations of poets and to surprise and move her readers.
