Spirit and Flame celebrates the creativity of the African American poet. This volume, comprising more than two hundred pieces, delivers the artistic and political fervor of new and established black voices around the country -- in the oral tradition; in tanka and sonnets; in lyrics that echo the sound of jazz, hip hop, and rap. Heir to the classic Black Fire published in 1968, the book exemplifies modern black aesthetics, bringing together some of the best African American poets of the last decade.Gaining inspiration from Arna Bontemps' inquiry in American Negro Poetry of "what spirit will move the next African American poet", Keith Gilyard demonstrates that this scene is vibrant and diverse, at times unidentifiably ethnic, but that the overall tip -- the flame -- is strongly political. These poems span the entire range of the African American experience, from the Middle Passage (the passage of slave ships across the Atlantic) to the Million Man March, and are written with elegance, terror, humor, and grace.It has been over twenty years since an anthology has so thoroughly documented the full range and scope of contemporary African American poets -- poets, as Gilyard states, who have yearned to connect, to know, and to act.