In the Dark

In the follow-up to her National Book Award winning In the Next Galaxy, Ruth Stone returns to issues of memory, aging, and loss. Balancing her own personal history against profound political and cultural changes, she continues with direct witty poems which do not flinch when addressing issues of power and oppression. She has been called a "people's poet" and "America's Akhmatova," writing a poetry of everyday life which recasts the mundane as important and indispensable. When asked whether poets improve with age Stone, 89, replied: "There's no question. If your brain goes on and on, as it should under normal conditions, there's more in it and your writing will get more profound."