A CALL TO THE HEART TO SEE & DO MORE

Dear Facebook Family,

It's not every day that a poet lives to see her 2nd and 3rd literary children pulled off the bookshelf, after 18 and 15 years respectively — pulled off and marched off to their new dressing rooms where the very able Northwestern University Press designers have sweetly fussed over their hems (and hymns!!!) — in order to witness their visual reappointment for a new generation of readers. But that's just what happened to RICE and THE WORLD IS ROUND. It's so exciting to see them reappear now — sharp and full of their new grace in their new digs — but hopefully striding forward with the same critical language that helped teach me what poetry should always be — a call to the heart to see and do more. The appearance of two brilliant champions of poetry now appear at the beginning of each new edition. These new introductions by the wise Kwame Dawes and the wondrous Kevin Quashie both humble and humble this poet.

Gratefully, I bow to all who entered their pages then and return to enter now. Without your thousands of eyes, minds, and hearts on the case, I would be over here writing — but only talking to myself.

Nikky