"These poems, which date from the 1970s to the present, offer a vision of the Caribbean in which images of destruction and regeneration vie with equal power. There are lyrical paeans to the enduring, African-born spirituality of Caribbean people in their continuing relationship to the gods of the Orisha pantheon, and to popular creole creativity expressed in such cultural forms as carnival, steelpan and calypso. There are blues for those who have fallen in the struggle and for the recurrent wreckage of hopes as the radical dreams of regional independence and cultural autonomy founder in petty nationalism, economic dependence and political corruption. There are warrior songs against the forces of neo-colonialism and phallocentrism. At the heart of this quest for an authentic Caribbean politics and culture is a deeply personal journey, 'thirty-how-much years of labour in this archipelago of stones' by a woman who is truly an elemental force in Caribbean writing."--BOOK JACKET.