The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde

Now available for the first time, the collected poems of Audre Lorde, one of this country's most important and influential voices. Gathered here is the complete oeuvre of Audre Lorde's poetry, a poet whom Robin Morgan describes as "sinewy, lyrical, celebratory even in the face of death, and as always, political in the best sense." This collection is the first to include, along with other volumes, three of Lorde's early, previously unavailable works: The New York Head Shop and Museum, Cables to Rage, and From a Land Where Other People Live, books that in the author's own words detail "a linguistic and emotional tour through the conflicts, fears, and hopes of the worlds I have inhabited." The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde celebrates the undeniable voice of a woman who, according to Adrienne Rich, wrote as "a Black woman, a mother, a daughter, a lesbian, a visionary; poems of elemental wildness and healing, nightmare and lucidity . . . a poetry which extends beyond white Western politics, beyond the anger and wisdom of Black America. . . . These are poems which blaze and pulse on the page." This collection will provide for Lorde's readers, both old and new, proof of this poet's lasting power.

This is the definitive and complete Audre Lorde collection, including original and revised versions of Lorde's previously unavailable early poems and her later work, which Robin Morgan calls "sinewy, lyrical, celebratory even in the face of death." Lorde was able to write indignantly about political matters ("jessehelms," her excoriation of the right-wing icon, is outrageously funny and angry), and her eloquence from the margins made her an inspiration to many readers. Lorde's writings about family, erotic love, and quiet, beautiful moments of reflection also leave a deep impression. As Adrienne Rich has noted: "These are poems which blaze and pulse on the page."