SOURCE: "Fields Watered with Blood: Myth and Ritual in the Poetry of Margaret Walker," in Black Women Writers (1950-1980), edited by Mari Evans, Anchor Books, 1984, pp. 499-510.

Collier discusses Walker's use of Black myth and ritual in the poems of For my People and Prophets for a New Day.

"For my people everywhere…," the reader began, and the audience of Black folk listened, a profound and waiting silence. We knew the poem. It was ours. The reader continued, his deep voice speaking not only to us but for us, "… singing their slave songs repeatedly: their dirges and their ditties and their blues and jubilees…." And as the poem moved on, rhythmically piling on image after image of our lives, making us know again the music wrenched from our slave agony, the religious faith, the toil and confusion and hopelessness, the strength to endure in spite of it all...