GREAT. So great. This should be a text that's distributed to high schools that teach The Odyssey as a companion text. I would definitely market it to teachers.

This spectacular tribute to contemporary American artist, Romare Bearden by black poets of the diaspora commemorates his work meaningfully, using words to create diverse imagery.

On a recent visit with my brother and his girlfriend to the Detroit Institue of Arts, I came across Bearden's mosaic 'Quilting Time.' It's a beautifully made piece, quintessentially Bearden with it's bold, bright colors and distinct texture and shapes. My excitement to share the works of one of my favorite artists with quelled when my brother's girlfriend said, "So who is this guy again?" That is precisely why this collection is necessary. Here, Kwame Dawes and Matthew Shenoda have assembled an outstanding group of poets from Nikki Giovanni to Rita Dove to Tracy K, Smith (amongst many, many others) to remind us of the importance of Bearden's work and legacy. Some of the poems are tributes to the man himself, others are ruminations on the world that birthed him, and a few pose the question "What does Bearden's work tell us about the world as it is now?" The interaction of visual image with written text is a wonderful reminder that Bearden's impressive works have always constituted a source of lyricism themselves.