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BOOK REVIEW DENT which held the history & secret of crushed Indian bones & of clamoring moaning voices of unborn black children who were screaming semen of castrated nigga dicks & his look held the origin of ashes. . . . (from "New York City Beggar") Then on to a wonderfully visual conclusion which you have to read for yourself. The same sensibility is displayed in finely executed poems like "New York Streetwalker," "Winter Night Lyric," "Legon, Ghana, After Dark," "Snow & Ice" and "New York Black Disco Scene, 1976": here earth smells have no place or meaning here no innovative black language no human love given but tongue-in-cheek-chic fashion plate givenchy/chanel number five/monsieur rochas english leather hear chit-chat of ice cubes with no memory of who murdered fred hampton snatched away that beautiful light. . . . (from "New York Black Disco Scene") Quincy Troupe's extroverted and humorous work reflects the poet's love of the prodigiousness, the excesses of language-characteristics I have always thought of as particularly Afro/linguistic, stemming from the African oral tradition. Rhythm, sound and narrative skill are the key elements, buttressed by a feeling and reverence for history, the genius of black music and memory. Troupe's style is not particularly introspective, but the poems work in this excellent collection which spans the best of his work throughout several periods. Tom Dent