Marilyn Nelson is the author of eight volumes of poetry, including The Fields of Praise, Magnificat, and The Homeplace. She has been a National Book Award finalist on three occasions and has received the Anisfield-Wolf Award, the Poets' Prize, the Boston Globe / Horn Book Award, a Newbery Honor Award, and a Coretta Scott King Honor Award. The daughter of a career U.S. Air Force officer, she was born in Cleveland, Ohio, grew up on air bases all over the country, and wrote her first poem at age eleven. She is a professor emerita of English at the University of Connecticut and Poet Laureate of Connecticut.

"Joined skin to skin, we moved like molecules in the great, impossible miracle of atmosphere, swaying to the music, all eyes on the stage, all hearts attuning themselves in beautiful polyrhythmy, one shaking booty. On one side of me a young man danced; I felt his muscled warmth flow into mine, his pure, sexual strength. On my other sides young women danced, whose curves bumped me softly, dancing without reserve, hands waving in the air, releasing scent fragrant as nard. We danced in reverent, silent assent to the praise-song of drums. - from "Olodum" of "The Cachoeira Tales"

Marilyn Nelson is the author of eight volumes of poetry, including The Fields of Praise, Magnificat, and The Homeplace. She has been a National Book Award finalist on three occasions and has received the Anisfield-Wolf Award, the Poets' Prize, the Boston Globe / Horn Book Award, a Newbery Honor Award, and a Coretta Scott King Honor Award. The daughter of a career U.S. Air Force officer, she was born in Cleveland, Ohio, grew up on air bases all over the country, and wrote her first poem at age eleven. She is a professor emerita of English at the University of Connecticut and Poet Laureate of Connecticut.

"Joined skin to skin, we moved like molecules in the great, impossible miracle of atmosphere, swaying to the music, all eyes on the stage, all hearts attuning themselves in beautiful polyrhythmy, one shaking booty. On one side of me a young man danced; I felt his muscled warmth flow into mine, his pure, sexual strength. On my other sides young women danced, whose curves bumped me softly, dancing without reserve, hands waving in the air, releasing scent fragrant as nard. We danced in reverent, silent assent to the praise-song of drums. - from "Olodum" of "The Cachoeira Tales"

Marilyn Nelson is the author of eight volumes of poetry, including The Fields of Praise, Magnificat, and The Homeplace. She has been a National Book Award finalist on three occasions and has received the Anisfield-Wolf Award, the Poets' Prize, the Boston Globe / Horn Book Award, a Newbery Honor Award, and a Coretta Scott King Honor Award. The daughter of a career U.S. Air Force officer, she was born in Cleveland, Ohio, grew up on air bases all over the country, and wrote her first poem at age eleven. She is a professor emerita of English at the University of Connecticut and Poet Laureate of Connecticut.

"Joined skin to skin, we moved like molecules in the great, impossible miracle of atmosphere, swaying to the music, all eyes on the stage, all hearts attuning themselves in beautiful polyrhythmy, one shaking booty. On one side of me a young man danced; I felt his muscled warmth flow into mine, his pure, sexual strength. On my other sides young women danced, whose curves bumped me softly, dancing without reserve, hands waving in the air, releasing scent fragrant as nard. We danced in reverent, silent assent to the praise-song of drums. - from "Olodum" of "The Cachoeira Tales"