Dear John, Dear Coltrane Poems by Michael S. Harper

Dear John, Dear Coltrane was Michael S. Harper's first book of poems and a nominee for the National Book Award.

Of it the Virginia Quarterly Review observed: "Harper's is a poetry of classically unadorned statement, a direct, unflinching record of a man alive in his time. When he is at his best, in both his public and his private voice, he creates a language humming with emotion and ennobled by a deeply felt human dignity."

Always deeply rooted in the black experience, Harper's nevertheless has been a poetry that speaks to all readers.