The collected poems of Lorenzo Thomas

Nielsen (Penn State) and Vrana (Univ. of South Alabama) assembled this collection of the work of African American poet Lorenzo Thomas (1944--2005) to shed light on the interface between race and literature. Thomas was a major poet and influential citric in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and this excellent book makes him more visible. Thomas's work illuminates the social and racial tonalities of the turbulent period in which he lived. In the preface and introduction, Vrana and Nielsen, respectively, provide an overview of this important poet's life and work. The experience of Thomas's poetry is intertwined with the overall culture in the US, including the popular music of the time. At the same time, Thomas's vision was a "pan-African global identity." The editors are familiar with the various schools of poetry that coexisted and interacted with African American aesthetics of the time: the Black Mountain poets, the Beat movement, the New York School. Thomas's poetry reveals the influences--some contemporaneous, some much earlier--of writers as diverse as Ezra Pound and Langston Hughes. Prose statements by Thomas follow the poetry and enhance the collection. The absence of a list of Thomas's books, with dates, is regrettable. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. --Barry Wallenstein, emeritus, CUNY City College

Song You asked me to sing Then you seemed not To hear; to have gone out From the edge of my voice And I was singing There I was singing In a heathen voice You could not hear Though you requested The song--it was for them. Although they refuse you And the song I made for you Tangled in their tongue They wd mire themselves in the spring Rains, as I sit here folding and Unfolding my nose in your gardens I wouldn't mind it so bad Each word is cheapened In the air, sounding like Language that riots and Screams in the dark city Thoughts they requested Concepts that rule them Since I can't have you I will steal what you have Excerpted from The Collected Poems of Lorenzo Thomas by Lorenzo Thomas All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.