“There are certain poets whose works breathe and dream far beyond the first birth of their language. June Jordan’s ‘On Time Tanka’ fills an old form with rage and Black love at once. To defy any form, box, grave, or body inflicted as a definition speaks to the core of Jordan’s craft and identity. The rhythm of this poem gives to us Jordan’s unmitigated powers as though she is, as she will always be, standing up for the lives and rights we too must dream, must demand. In this poem language and action are immediate and urgent as the times we are confronting. Against that perpetual confrontation, June Jordan lived, writing furiously for herself and for those she knew would be coming through the violence of America. In the name of listening and truth-telling, the poetry of June Jordan resists memory and can never be silenced.”
—Rachel Eliza Griffiths