[Audre Lorde] risks expressing herself fully in her poems as a woman capable of rage as well as love.

From a Land Where Other People Live reveals the poet's growth as a person and a craftswoman. It is, I think, one of those fortunate books that come from a poet's knowing where she stands in her life. Part of its power comes from anger…. Lorde is moved not only by injustice, but by the paradox of her identities, being both black and a woman…. (p. 39)

If I have any complaint, it is that lines sometimes tend to be prosaic, with a judgment-making adjective or adverb where there might be an implicitly forceful picture (perhaps explicit judging is always the risk in poetry of commitment). Yet the musicality and the self-assurance of the voice make it work as poetry. The best poems have a resonance that comes from powerful...