Introduction / Kevin Young -- Something Like Dying, Maybe -- Serenade -- Thirst -- Nina Fantasma -- Brief Touristic Account -- Gospel: Manuel -- Gospel: Miguel (el Lobito) -- Gospel: Luis -- Gospel: Juan -- Gospel: Alejandro (el Monstruo) -- Gospel: Jesus -- Drought -- Betty Blue -- Mangoes -- Appetite -- A Hunger So Honed -- Credulity -- Five Dreams of Offspring -- Wintering -- Joy -- Self-Portrait As the Letter Y -- Fire Escape Fantasy -- Night Letters -- What Fear Is -- Night -- Studio -- Bright -- The Machinery of Evening -- Dominion over the Beasts of the Earth -- Shadow Poem -- Prayer.
Summary
The body's question by Tracy K. Smith received the 2002 Cave Canem Poetry Prize for the best first book by an African-American poet, selected by Kevin Young. Confronting loss, historical intersections with race and family, and the threshold between childhood and adulthood, Smith gathers courage and direction from the many disparate selves encountered in these poems, until, as she writes, "I was anyone I wanted to be."
