Alone in the Crowd

Through the many colors we all are, we follow the author on a journey from the comforting arms and warm bosom of a black nurse in a polio ward to the open arms and welcoming bosom of a black woman fifty years later. As in David's other books, we are invited to join in the journey, not as mere spectators, but as participants. The story is told within both narrative prose and poetry, enhancing each with the other. This fifth book by the author serves as a prequel to The Women I Am and Walking Bear Footprints, wrapping them into one package of a poet's retrospective of his life that is individual and unique only because we all are just as individual and unique. Being born to two white parents that were too poor in too many things to be any color, the author's life intersects at very vital times with women of color that give him the colors that would find their way into his ancient African soul and into his poetry, and finally, into the arms of an African-American soul. While the color black is frequently emphasized so is the color red, for war. With red we follow a Viet Nam era veteran to an anti-war poet questioning the sense of it all. Being an every-man's poet, David does not disguise his feelings about his history and our history. In the end he invites us to decide for ourselves what our lives and our history tells us about ourselves as both individuals and as a society. And, although we may feel Alone in the Crowd, we learn that we never truly are.