In Images of Kin, Michael S. Harper gathers the best of the old and the oldest of the new into a visit with his past. Of course, we all know of that strange haunting which is our connection with our kin; Mr. Harper has chosen to face the ghosts head on. Mr. Harper has created a formula in which he sums himself up.

The poems are of children in the business of growing, children being sadly beautiful, of the hidden costs of slavery, the back roads to freedom, of living today among the hard-bitten ghosts of one's history. The allusions are many and they are often difficult. But the search for a connection generally yields a powerful factor in his formula.

While the book, 213 pages, spends a thrifty 35 pages on new poems, filling the balance with selections from previous books, one has the understanding that this is the...