In HIV, Mon Amour, one thinks of the long line as a near classical conceit, a life-line tethered to in-depth meaning and breathless pursuit. This collection is a whirlpool of energy that seems to be reaching for cinematic clarity, driven by a need to confront modern psychology and ontology until there’s a focus of certainty. Here’s a map where ideas and experiences collide, and what rises out of the landscape underneath is a poetry that is painful and truthful, beautiful and terrifying, lyrical and narrative, always engaging the intellect and body politic. HIV, Mon Amour seems relentless, a long-breath engine that propels the urgency of this spell-binding collection of poems at the end of our millennium. The voice here is not stingy; it is a full-throated singing that demands a passionate response because it has compassion for the reader. This book is brave, and a bold sophistication is in the heartbeat of the truth-telling. —Yusef Komunyakaa, 1999 Laughlin Award Judge