Harris, Reva Gail2019-09-182019-09-182019-06-13http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11868/810Strong Like Willows When We Walk is a collection of forty-five poems employing a variety of aesthetic techniques. These poems are intended to be accessible with rhymes, rich sounds, and imagery. The collection is comprised, mostly, of free verse poems; however, it includes poems written in traditional forms: sonnets, haiku, ghazal, villanelle, irregular ode, and sestina. Each poem seeks to convey a truth, or to draw as near to a truth as possible. This proximity to truth requires a lens through which one must be willing to examine everything from various angles. Principle themes in the collection include death, historical figures, relationships, abuse, and nature (human, animal, and plant). The poems capture the realism of unique life moments and occurrences, while, sometimes, embellishing and/or reimagining common stories, myths, and situations. This collection has a varied assortment of poems involving past, present, and future life experiences. Strong Like Willows When We Walk lifts up the reader with tales of grace, beauty, and wit; and, it drops the reader down low with narratives on death, loss, and betrayal, bending and flailing, without breaking the bough.en-USPoetryFree verseThesis