Poetry. African American studies. An outstanding selection including poems from eight previous volumes, as well as new work, from an important American writer. By turns humorous and serious, Major is always richly lyrical while remaining visual and precise in his observations. For the younger reader this poetry can work as a lesson in verbal and visual imagination: There are no things rain is like. / Trees are like brick walls. But there are no things the walls themselves are like. / I'm like you. The contents of a book are like margarine. / The hard green surface of my car is like a forest fire. (`Word into Words Won't Go) In 1970 Clarence Major's first collection, SWALLOW THE LAKE, WON THE National Council on the Arts Award and a year later his poetry was honored with a New York Cultural Foundation prize. He lives is Davis, California.