| Preface | xv |
| Once | 1 |
| Introduction | 3 |
| African Images, Glimpses from a Tiger's Back | 7 |
| Love | 53 |
| Karamojongs | 63 |
| Once | 72 |
| Chic Freedom's Reflection | 96 |
| South: The Name of Home | 99 |
| Hymn | 103 |
| The Democratic Order: Such Things in Twenty Years I Understood | 106 |
| They Who Feel Death | 107 |
| On being asked to leave a place of honor for one of comfort; preferably in the northern suburbs | 108 |
| The Enemy | 109 |
| Compulsory Chapel | 110 |
| To the Man in the Yellow Terry | 112 |
| The Kiss | 115 |
| What Ovid Taught Me | 116 |
| Mornings / of an impossible love | 118 |
| So We've Come at Last to Freud | 124 |
| Johann | 126 |
| The Smell of Lebanon | 129 |
| Warning | 131 |
| The Black Prince | 132 |
| Medicine | 133 |
| Ballad of the brown girl | 135 |
| Suicide | 137 |
| Excuse | 138 |
| To die before one wakes must be glad | 139 |
| Exercises on Themes from Life | 142 |
| Revolutionary Petunias & Other Poems | 151 |
| Introduction | 153 |
| In These Dissenting Times ... Surrounding Ground and Autobiography | 155 |
i. | The Old Men Used to Sing | 157 |
ii. | Winking at a Funeral | 158 |
iii. | Women | 159 |
iv. | Three Dollars Cash | 161 |
v. | You Had to Go to Funerals | 162 |
vi. | Uncles | 164 |
vii. | They Take a Little Nip | 166 |
viii. | Sunday School, Circa 1950 | 168 |
| Burial | 169 |
| For My Sister Molly Who in the Fifties | 175 |
| Eagle Rock | 180 |
| Baptism | 183 |
| J, My Good Friend (another foolish innocent) | 184 |
| View from Rosehill Cemetery: Vicksburg | 185 |
| Revolutionary Petunias ... The Living Through | 188 |
| Revolutionary Petunias | 189 |
| Expect Nothing | 191 |
| Be Nobody's Darling | 193 |
| Reassurance | 195 |
| Nothing Is Right | 198 |
| Crucifixions | 199 |
| Black Mail | 200 |
| Lonely Particular | 202 |
| Perfection | 204 |
| The Girl Who Died #1 | 205 |
| Ending | 206 |
| Lost My Voice? Of Course | 207 |
| The Girl Who Died #2 | 208 |
| The Old Warrior Terror | 210 |
| Judge Every One with Perfect Calm | 211 |
| The QPP | 212 |
| He Said Come | 213 |
| Mysteries ... The Living Beyond | 214 |
| Mysteries | 216 |
| Gift | 221 |
| Clutter-up People | 222 |
| Thief | 224 |
| Will | 225 |
| Rage | 226 |
| Storm | 227 |
| What the Finger Writes | 228 |
| Forbidden Things | 229 |
| No Fixed Place | 230 |
| New Face | 231 |
| The Nature of This Flower Is to Bloom | 232 |
| While Love Is Unfashionable | 233 |
| Beyond What | 234 |
| The Nature of This Flower Is to Bloom | 235 |
| Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning | 237 |
| Introduction | 239 |
| Confession | 243 |
| Did This Happen to Your Mother? Did Your Sister Throw Up a Lot? | 244 |
| More Love to His Life | 247 |
| Gift | 249 |
| Never Offer Your Heart to Someone Who Eats Hearts | 251 |
| Threatened | 253 |
| My Husband Says | 255 |
| Confession | 257 |
| The Instant of Our Parting | 258 |
| He Said | 259 |
| The Last Time | 260 |
| After the Shrink | 261 |
| At First | 262 |
| On Stripping Bark from Myself ... | 263 |
| Janie Crawford | 264 |
| Moody | 265 |
| Now That the Book Is Finished | 266 |
| Having Eaten Two Pillows | 267 |
| Light baggage | 268 |
| On Stripping Bark from Myself | 270 |
| Early Losses: a Requiem | 272 |
| Early Losses: a Requiem | 273 |
| In Uganda an Early King | 281 |
| Forgive Me If My Praises | 283 |
| The Abduction of Saints | 288 |
| Malcolm | 291 |
| Facing the Way | 292 |
| (In answer to your silly question) | 293 |
| Streaking (a phenomenon following the sixties) | 294 |
| "'Women of Color' Have Rarely Had The Opportunity to Write About Their Love Affairs" | 295 |
| Facing the way | 298 |
| Talking to my grandmother who died poor (while hearing Richard Nixon declare "I am not a crook.") | 300 |
| January 10, 1973 | 302 |
| Forgiveness | 303 |
| Your Soul Shines | 304 |
| Forgiveness | 305 |
| Even as I hold you | 306 |
| "Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning" | 307 |
| Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful | 309 |
| Introduction | 311 |
| Remember? | 317 |
| These Mornings of Rain | 319 |
| First, They Said | 322 |
| Listen | 324 |
| S M | 326 |
| The Diamonds on Liz's Bosom | 328 |
| We Alone | 329 |
| Attentiveness | 330 |
| 1971 | 331 |
| Every Morning | 333 |
| How Poems Are Made: A Discredited View | 335 |
| Mississippi Winter I | 337 |
| Mississippi Winter II | 338 |
| Mississippi Winter III | 339 |
| Mississippi Winter IV | 340 |
| Love is not concerned | 341 |
| She said | 342 |
| Walker | 343 |
| Killers | 344 |
| Songless | 345 |
| A Few Sirens | 348 |
| Poem at Thirty-nine | 351 |
| I Said to Poetry | 353 |
| Gray | 356 |
| Overnights | 358 |
| My Daughter Is Coming! | 360 |
| When Golda Meir Was in Africa | 362 |
| If "Those People" Like You | 364 |
| On Sight | 366 |
| I'm Really Very Fond | 368 |
| Representing the Universe | 369 |
| Family of | 371 |
| Each One, Pull One | 374 |
| Who? | 378 |
| Without Commercials | 379 |
| No One Can Watch the Wasichu | 384 |
| The Thing Itself | 387 |
| Torture | 389 |
| Well | 390 |
| Song | 394 |
| These Days | 396 |
| We Have a Beautiful Mother: Previously Uncollected Poems | 407 |
| My Heart Has Reopened to You | 411 |
| Some Things I Like about My Triple Bloods | 416 |
| Telling | 418 |
| Pagan | 420 |
| Natural Star | 422 |
| If There Was Any Justice | 424 |
| Beast | 430 |
| Ndebele | 432 |
| We Have a Map of the World | 436 |
| The Right to Life | 442 |
| Armah | 449 |
| The Awakening | 452 |
| A woman is not a potted plant | 454 |
| Winnie Mandela We Love You | 456 |
| We Have a Beautiful Mother | 459 |
| Once, Again | 461 |