Wayfaring Stranger
M. Rose Barkley

Book Review by Debora Lidov

In her forward to Wayfaring Stranger,  M. Rose Barkley writes that she is inspired by "things that survive generations." So Barkley chose an antique photograph for the cover of her book, a portrait of a young African American man sporting a serene yet stunned, utterly compelling expression--an image the poet feels embodies the spirit of her book.  "The stranger," Barkley writes, "is the stranger that we all possess within us. That part that is the greatest portion of the self, left unnurtured and even ignored out of fear."

The poems that follow this introduction are self-nurturing reflections
on history, society, and the self.  At all times, Barkley celebrates
the power of the mind and the resilience of the soul.  There are angry
and despairing poems, such as "Still" and "A View of Africa" and
fearful poems such as "Molecular Being", which explores the fragility 
the physical body, but most often, Barkley's speaker reasons her way to
an uplifting conclusion amidst whatever rage and fear also reside.

Sometimes Barkley falls into one word lines that feel like short cuts--
stylistically and linguistically--when more inventive, original language
and images are called for.  But the overiding celebration of
consciousness, a reverence for the written word, and for the act of
writing itself come across as sincere.  In her poem "The Point," Barkley
insists on the existence of an inner resource, a "place" that inhabits
each of us.  She concludes that "It exists/ for sanity sake."

(Wayfaring Stranger is available through Sound Publishing Co./ P.O. Box
26782/ Richmond, VA  23261/ 804-783-9673)

Debora Lidov is our former Poetry Editor.