Middle Ear

Poetry. African American Studies. Forrest Hamer's first book, CALL & RESPONSE (Alice James, 1995; also available) won the Beatrice Hawley Award. Now, his newest book is the seventh selection in the new California Poetry Series. These poems speak from Hamer's memories of his Southern childhood, weaving that time into the daily dreams and insights of his life in northern California in a continuing series of vignettes. 'A man writes his dark body,' one poem tells us, and in fact this book inscribes exactly that: a full, breathing voice, muscular intelligence working in language that both startles and satisfies --Mark Doty.