Prebilic is an independent author who writes and analyzes children's literature. She holds degrees in psychology and business. In this essay, Prebilic discusses how Graham's poem considers the normally weak proclivity of the human phenomenological mind.

Graham published her first collection, Hybrids of Plants and Of Ghosts, in 1980. Graham admired the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, a renowned philosopher, and based the title on his characterization of human beings. Graham bases her collection on the themes of death and change. This collection gained recognition for Graham; subsequently, critics learned to both admire and condemn her poetic prose.

According to Bonnie Costello in Contemporary Literature:

Graham emerged in the 1980s as a major poet, distinguished
for her philosophical depth, her sensuous
vision, the grandeur of her style and themes. . . . In
her first book, Hybrids of Plants and of Ghosts, Graham
limited her meditation primarily to tentative reflections
based on...