Black Swan

Winner of the 2001 Cave Canem Prize Selected by Marilyn Nelson Finalist, 2003 Paterson Poetry Prize "Imagine Leda black" begins Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanons exciting new collection of poems. Mixing vernacular language with classical mythology, modern struggles with Biblical trials, she gives voice to silenced women past and present. In Van Clief-Stefanons powerful voice, last nights angry words "puffed / into the dark room like steam / punching through the thick surface / of cooking grits." She remembers a childs innocence "lost / in the house where I learned the red rug / against my chest, my knees / my tongue, . . . ." Black Swan is filled with pain, loss, hope, and the promise of salvation.