In a portentous foreword [to "Passion: New Poems, 1977–1980"] Jordan acknowledges her debt to Whitman and proposes to update this "white father's" political vision. However, this collection of talk-poems owes much more to the oral tradition of fellow black poets Nikki Giovanni and Imamu Amiri Baraka than to Whitman. Whether it succeeds in applying Whitman's democratic outlook to the modern world will depend very much on the reader's tastes and beliefs. There are forceful pieces on police brutality, racism, white genocide of Indians and blacks; "personal greetings" to Fidel Castro, "hirsute Spanish-speaking hero"; a man's confessional slyly comparing theft of a Porsche to rape. But the most effective poems are taut, sensitive explorations of personal relationships. In one strong political poem, the refrain "Martin Luther King, Jr., is still dead" sums up the book's underlying mood of desperation and resolution.

"Nonfiction: 'Passion: New Poems, 1977–1980'," in Publishers Weekly (reprinted...