Sam Cornish emerged as one of the numerous Afro-American poets who gained an audience during the revolution in the arts that took place in the late 1960s. Because his work was anthologized by LeRoi Jones and Clarence Major, Cornish came to be associated with poets who embraced a black aesthetic. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he presented a body of technically proficient poems that were appreciated for their simplicity, directness, and honesty. Cornish made it all too clear what it was to be a black American. Not as public a figure as several of the writers in the black arts movement, Cornish produced some of the most profound work to come out of that group. Though his work reflects the dictates of the black aesthetic, with its emphasis on popular speech, social protest, and the celebration of black culture, it is never at the expense of...