Bless the Ashes

“This new collection illuminates the power and grace of the human heart that never, never gives up. These words have been pulled from the deepest of wells, the one named bona-fide inspiration, the one named old-school hip bone and hug.”—Nikky Finney

“[Peter Harris] is a poet who challenges us. He gives us history as art, confirming that there is little connectedness in poetry without truth, self-giving, and culture. However, there is something grander in his work, not tangential to the circle but in it, a healing substance that demands that we think, smile, and act. This is healthy poetry with a conscience and a smile, revealing rooted introspection and quiet love.”—Haki R. Madhubuti

“Weaving a tapestry of ancestral wisdom, the principled politics of radical happiness ,and the cadence of the musics that succor him, Harris offers poems as ceremony, through which we might rise to live ‘unhinged from tragic theory.’ ”—Terry Wolverton