This is a book of verse by one of the most controversial judges ever to sit on the New York bench. It is his first published collection in nearly two decades, and it is his best.
The moods of the poems range from warmly evocative memories of Paris living to bitter denunciations of the two tier American justice, one for the white population, one for the blacks. Some of the material offers stinging couplets about the commercialism of Christmas; others contain caustic comments about current life.
The verse represents Judge Wright's personal choices of more than half a century of writing. In the interim he co-edited (with Langston Hughes) the anthology From the Shaken Tower as well as two books dealing with justice.
Readers may find some of the verse disturbing, some romantic, some amusing, and all compelling.
