Searingly beautiful poems about compassion, resistance and desire by an iconic Black American activist and writer

Selected by Seán Hewitt as a Granta Book of the Year In trailblazing poet, essayist, teacher and activist June Jordan's poems, love is a vision of revolutionary solidarity, crossing borders both emotional and literal with an outstretched hand. Haruko traces the faltering arc of a passionate love affair with another woman while Love Poems encompasses relationships with men and women, political resistance, the need for self-care in a demanding, uncaring world and apocalyptic visions of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. A contemporary of Alice Walker, Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde, June Jordan's spectacular poetry remains profoundly politically potent, lyrically inventive and breathtakingly romantic. First published in 1994, Haruko/ Love Poems is a vitally important modern classic.

"Praise for June Jordan: Jordan puts love and delight in her poems, not just vengeance and justice... Writing is an act of faith in a future where meaning is possible." - The New York Times

"A powerful voice for radical love and justice. June Jordan is a poet for the ages." - Poets.org

"A wonderfully direct and heartfelt love poet... the poetry of June Jordan is fully alive, set free in brilliant, timeless flight." - Guardian

"A depth of feeling and a vibrancy which just sings out from the page ... lucid, strong, and accessible, singing of sexual desire and resistance against tyrannies" - Buzz Books