Collected Poems 1974-2004 [Paperback]

To read the poems of Rita Dove, to go where they take you, is to follow her deeply into a series of themes and their subsets: African-Americans in history and right now, ideas of indenture and independence, sex, travel, language (she compares commas to miniature scythes), family, motherhood, roomy adult love and whatever is coming out of the radio....so well observed that your heart and your internal cinema struggle to hold all it puts on display....Ms. Doves poems have earthiness, originality, power and range. Despair and loss are among her central themes, but so is the hunt for bedrock human pleasures.Reminds readers why she is one of the nations most respected literary figures....Essential.Finalist for the 2016 National Book Award