“There is quietness in this poetry that reflects deepness past its own use! Or it seems that way. Rashidah lines up the words to make statements of memory, exhilaration, passion, with a casual formality, as if she thought about that.

Sometimes she is searching for openings so her deeper self can be heard. Sometimes it is that feeling that wandering, wondering attention, which she impresses herself, is an actual Rashidah.

But poets rarely understand everything. Those that do are dangerous. They might carry guns and stuff like the Billy the Kid aesthetic, or they might carry memories and puncture the quietness of life passing for too many without a cry and puncture that flatness with poetic reflection.

The poems are the mind trying to search memory for emotion. But the heart & soul are the most expressive recorders of experience. Rashidah, with her delicate narratives of memory, reminds us of this and sometimes herself as well. When she does, the words take us with them and make us ask the same questions.”

-Amiri Baraka

“This latest collection of Sister Rashidah’s poetry in form is as neat as pyramids within which gems sparkle and gleam, illuminating all darknesses. The revelations are bright as stars and at once as mysterious and clear. The history herein is a meld of silk and granite, in which reader meets oneself. Another notable work.

-John A. Williams

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RASHIDAH ISMAILI is a writer of short stories, plays, and poetry. She is widely anthologized and has four collections of poems. She has also written plays which have been performed nationally and internationally. She served as associate director of the Higher Education Opportunity Program at Pratt Institute for fifteen years and now writes full time and conducts workshops, writing seminars, and lectures.

CATEGORY
Poetry/AFRICA