Okay, so sailing isn't always smooth

I'm in a quandry. Cover artist really wants us to use the high res scan she's decided to FedEx to PH instead of the currently accessible version. Full release in holding pattern! Pre-release (because we'd already run some of them) in process. Sailing isn't always so smooth as I thought.

Folks tend to see me as very conservative, so I guess I'd better explain my cover art choice for A Woman You Know.

The image is that of a distinctly African American woman. Something in her features and frankness hearken back to our assumed heritage, and i liked that very much. But in contrast, she is seated on a very modern and very white chair, the chair, for me, representing everything around her... her world, so to speak. That is pretty much the location of every poem i've written that mentions or approaches the subject of race or heritage. And "coming from" specificallyaddresses our lostness and absorption into a larger whole. It also wanders about looking for (trying to figure out) what foods would have been indigenous to our native villages, what customs might have been performed, all without really knowing because we are sitting in a white chair.... our heritage in this modern age rests, for the most part, where we've been allowed to rest or taught to rest... in the white chair. I guess I'm not really trying to say anything with the cover as much as support what is being said by some of the poems inside. i'm just freakin'out because i know this particular cover art is a bold statement, contrary to almost everyone's image of me. Don't worry.... I'll get over it. Heck, anyway, the cover is red. Assuming the artist still lets us use it, the red will help.