Description
Crystal Simone Smith's Runagate Is A Collection Of Japanese Forms Of Poetry, Both Haiku And Tanka, Written In Response To Slave Artifacts That Include Archived Bills Of Sale, Recorded Interviews And Narratives, And Fugitive Runaway Ads. Smith Draws From A Long Tradition Of Black Poets Engaging With Haiku, Including Richard Wright, Etheridge Knight, Louis Grandison Alexander, Lenard D. Moore, And Sonia Sanchez. Her Poems Explore The Relationship Between The Captivity Of Enslaved People And The Concise Forms Of These Zen, Nature-inspired Styles Of Poetry. Runagate Illuminates And Documents The Horrors Experienced By Enslaved People, Yet The Poems Also Explore Journeys To Freedom: Passages That Are Fueled By Hope, Love, And The Improbable Dreams Of The Enslaved-- Provided By Publisher.