Halting Steps : Collected and New Poems

Halting Steps represents the most complete single-volume retrospective in English of Claribel Alegria's seven-decade career. The volume collects all of Alegria's poems from her fourteen previously published books and debuts several new poems under the title "Otherness." Her poetry is not only lyrical and introspective but also po litically engaged. Her verse speaks forcefully, specifically, and fearlessly to matters of social justice in her region. She strikes a universal theme, however, in giving a voice to individuals of all classes in their struggle against oppression, but especially women who must contend with a system in which men hold the power and women are ex cluded. Alegria demonstrates her remarkable range with deeply personal poems, perhaps most notably in the poem cycle "Sorrow," as she moves steadily through the waves of grief she experiences after her husband's death. In Halting Steps, both longtime admirers and those new to her work can appreciate the sustained creative power of Claribel Alegria's poems.