nAlice 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 in the sunlight. [This collection] has two fine strengths-a music that comes along sometimes, as sad and cheery as a lonely womans whistling-and Miss Walkers own tragicomic gifts (New York Times Book Review). n