Dancing on Main Street
Poems by Lorenzo Thomas

"Lorenzo Thomas's poems have a graceful New York School nonchalance that can swiftly become a hard and cutting edge when he writes of the African American experience, especially in his adopted home of Texas. 'This useless clairvoyance/is embarrassing,' he confides. Yet Thomas's brand of clairvoyance is not only useful, but beautiful."—John Ashbery

"There is a quality to Thomas' poetry that makes one want to read it aloud and drink in the sound…short pithy lines roll off the tongue and captivate the ear."—Houston Chronicle

A major figure in the Black Arts Movement and a founding member of the Umbra workshop, Lorenzo Thomas is one of the most heralded authors of his generation. Dancing on Main Street, Thomas's long-awaited collection spanning many decades of his career, blends traditional lyricism with a surrealist's touch and a realist's eye. Together these poems form a cinematic look at the obsessions, pleasures, trials, and tribulations of life on Main Street.