Holt Paperbacks, 1998

“When daddy pushed me and girlhood innocence out my bedroom window I picked up the shattered pieces of myself and became a woman.” - P.S.

Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery is lyrical and provocative, humorous and potent as it tackles both personal and contemporary issues of enslavement, sexuality, psychological trauma, and physical abuse. From beginning to end some of these poems chart the journey that is life and one woman's cycle of dependency as she recovers her lost identity. Thematically, it is bound by a writer's search for love and fight for freedom, drawing on the spirit and will of Harriet Tubman, the image of the bloated body of Emmett Till, the bombing of Philadelphia Move, and lesbian love. In the tradition of June Jordan and Sapphire, Pamela Sneed presents an in-your-face, powerful, and stirring debut.