neath is a stunning collection that whispers, wails, and yells. In her inescapable incantatory voice, readers are transported to real worlds-- from North Carolina to Ghana-- and to the imaginary worlds of ever after. This book is a remembrance of departures and returns by a poet who is " the one who would come home." Smith McKoy summons ancestors and ultimately finds what was lost. These poems are the most brilliant portals. They are " the sun splitting through the blinds." Jenny Sadre-Orafai