Best known as the author of the legendary Black lesbian vampire story, The Gilda Stories, Jewelle Gomez is also an important cultural worker, a playwright, and a poet. Still Water is her first book of poems since 1995's Oral Traditions: Selected Poems Old and New. Her work ranges across topics as varied as politics, history, praise songs for her formative influences, and a three-poem "Interlude" of poems written on streetcars in New Orleans, Boston, and Milan (proceeded by a New York City subway poem). Gomez's strongest work focuses on her ethnically mixed heritage. Gomez is descended from Cape Verdeans, as well as members of the Ioway and Wampanoag nations, and particularly celebrates her Native American forebears. In the final poem, and throughout the book, Gomez lives up to her Indigenous name: "Still Water who touches all shores/past and present, in my journey to the ocean/even as I seem unmoving."

The poems in Still Water amplify and illuminate the old saying “Still waters run deep.” First and foremost, these are poems about people, relationships, and self-discovery. These poems are like street maps, interconnecting families, tribes, communities and celebrating those routes that link her to each. For me, reading this book was an experience of the holy – the holy Black, the holy Native, the holy Lesbian, brought into the realms of daily life and work. ( )

Stunning. I know Gomez through her Gilda Stories, some of which are near-perfect. But her poetry, I was unprepared for such breadth of references literary (Audre Lorde, Gertrude Stein, Angelina Grimke, Tracy Chapman, Tennessee Williams, Gil Scot-Heron), cultural (Eleanor Bumpers, Sally Ride, Cellini), and political (Biden, Trump, Loving v. Virginia). And more: there are odes to streetcars, to a buckskin dress, to a restaurant (which is so superb, you can see, hear, feel the movement in every line). Every poem is deeply felt and gorgeously written with surprises in every stanza. The book feels like a meditation on the people, books, traditions that make Gomez who she is, a lesbian poet of color ("I love writing the words: / A coloured lesbian" p.46), of Native ancestry. There is such real feeling here, such wit and intelligence, such unexpected turns. This reminded me of June Jordan in its passion and political engagement, but, really, this book is one of a kind. ( )

Poetry with purpose. Each poem includes the inspiration, which I really enjoyed. It captures the sentiments of many. The poetry is precise and accessible while also poignant and powerful. A lovely collection. ( )

I don't feel qualified to evaluate the poetry in this collection but it is diverse, recording love, loss, friendship and the kinship of womrn. ( )