[Certainly] the poet who calls herself Ai ("love" in Japanese, which is part of her ancestry) is among the best [of the Afro-American poets]; this much can be proved already in Killing Floor, though it is only her second book and a slim one at that. Many of her poems are in the voices of others, personae in the true sense, masks behind which not only she but all of us stand and peer out. This by itself indicates Ai's literary intelligence. Her passion is the thing that counts, however, and it throbs—the word is just—in every rhythm, image, and phrasing…. [Ai's] book is a joyous shock. (pp. 89-90)

Hayden Carruth, "Impetus and Invention: Poetic Tradition and the Individual Talent," in Harper's (copyright © 1979 by Harper's Magazine; all rights reserved; reprinted from the May, 1979 issue by special permission), Vol. 258, No. 1548, May, 1979, pp. 88-90.