ÒAn aging poet's failing eyesight informs this collection . . . some of which recall the spirit of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. Dark but not hopeless, they spring from Stone's lucid inner vision, which is straightforward, musical, and defiant.ÓÑUtne

Now available in paperback, In the Dark, winner of the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement, is Ruth Stone's follow-up to her National Book Award--winning In the Next Galaxy. Personal issues of memory, aging, and loss are balanced against profound political and cultural change. Stone has been called a Òpeople's poetÓ whose work is Òprofoundly rewarding,Ó and she writes a poetry of everyday life that recasts the mundane as indispensable. When asked whether poets improve with age, Stone, then eighty-nine, replied: ÒThere's no question.ÓFrom ÒWhat is a Poem?Ó:

Having come this far with a handful of alphabet, I am forced, with these few blocks, to invent the universe.