These poems express a range of emotions, from affectionate and observant family portraits to the righteous anger of an Afro-Caribbean woman's truth telling, to t er poems of loss and remembrance. Shared is a focus on the position of women in Jamaican society and a common depth of reflection and concern with poetic craft. Author Biography: Velma Pollard is one of the Caribbean's foremost poets. She was formerly a senior lecturer in language education at the University of the West Indies at Mona, where her areas of expertise included the Creole languages of the Anglophone Caribbean, the language of Caribbean literature, and Caribbean women's writing. She is the author of From Jamaican Creole to Standard English: A Handbook for Teachers , Dread Talk: The Language of Rastafari , Considering Woman , and Shame Trees Don't Grow Here .