Seminal African American poet Etheridge Knight did not begin writing poetry until a robbery conviction sent him to prison in 1960. A Korean War veteran who suffered a shrapnel wound that led to drug addiction, Knight published his first collection in 1968, , which set him apart as an important new voice in the Black Arts Movement. His second collection, (1973), earned him Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominations, and his third collection, (1980), was also critically acclaimed. is a selection of the best work by one of the country’s most prominent and still-relevant poets, decades after his death. It brings together poems from Knight’s three previously published books and a section of later poems available only in this collection, which features a striking new cover.