This is a collection of free verse poetry by a black woman poet noted for her spare, powerful imagery. She has been a famous poet since the late 1980s, having received the Shelley Memorial Prize, the Charity Randall prize, the Shestack Prize from the American Poetry Review, and an Emmy Award. In addition, she has had two books of poetry chosen as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.

These poems are gentle, pared-down, and well-crafted. Although they are free verse, they lean heavily on iambic scansion with occasional near-rhymes. They allude to persons and places personal to both the poet as well as public. They are very personal poems, made universal by the persistently kind and gentle touch of the poet.

Because this is a collection of poetry, there is no particular plot structure to the work, except that it begins with the poet's newest poems from the year 2000, then swings back to 1988 with selected poems chosen from ensuing years.