The Stone Gatherer
by Esther Phillips

Candid, honest, and empathetic, this disarming volume of poetry revels in poems that undress the foibles of family?from a father’s smallness to a mother’s ?fortissimo”?all located within the unique landscape of Barbados. Displaying a facility for the Barbadian dialect as well as lyrical West Indian English, the collection demonstrates the wit and intelligence of an artist committed to the use of verse to test the meaning of experience. Structured as a woman-centered movement of poems, the volume begins with the complex coming-of-age journey of a child and moves through an adulthood of romance and crushed emotions, the rewards and anxieties of motherhood, and the contemplative and reflective role of elder.