Cycle of song

The poems in this collection are generally written in free verse. This is significant to the work for it is the desire of the author that a strong sense of the natural flow of speech patterns be created in the majority of poems. The poem "Jesus in the Work Place" draws strongly from the oral tradition of Zulu "drumming" poems, and also resembles the praise poems of the Yoruba. The poem "Catharsis", while it appears to be influenced by the style of Baraka's later works, is indicative of ancient tribal ceremonial poems which purge so that the mind and spirit might be cleansed. The lines are created to be long enough to exhaust the breath of the speaker. The layout of the work is designed to represent the relationships between the Black male and Black female as they move through realistic history in a cycle of song.