Coal is one of the earliest collections of poems by a woman who, Adrienne Rich writes, for the complexity of her vision, for her moral courage and the catalytic passion of her language, has already become, for many, an indispensable poet. A rich gathering of songs and love poems, elegies and narratives, Coal evokes views of city life that are accident and hard-edged, and sardonic ‘cables of rage’ humming with their own electricity (Helen Vendler).