The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South

"The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South," a compulsively rich anthology edited by Nikky Finney, raises many of the usual arguments about identity politics and aesthetic quality. But another, and more personally interesting, comes from a different quarter: Why is this anthology so much better than any Southern-based collection edited by a white writer in recent years? After all, these have contained African-American writers (and even women). But they have not been nearly as representative of the old and the young; the native-born Southerners and the emigres, even the visitors; the formalists and the writers of free verse, not to mention Ebonics and spoken word poets. Forrest Hamer, from whose work the book's title is taken, is one of the better-known newcomers; others to watch are Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, Sharan Strange, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Hermine Pinson, Earl Braggs, Harryette Mullen, and Kendra Hamilton, to name only a few. There are moments in Finney's anthology when readers might well feel that quality has been sacrificed for inclusiveness. Preferring gumbo to poached okra when it comes to such matters, I licked the bowl clean.