Tupac: Reckoning

Kevin Powell's 15th book, the music-inspired poetry collection Grocery Shopping with My Mother, is both a reckoning with family history and a celebration of Black pop culture. In the title poem that opens the collection, Powell (The Education of Kevin Powell) helps his ailing mother with daily tasks to prevent another fall. With a satisfying symmetry, the collection also ends with a poem about her, "Son2Mother." He grants her forgiveness, knowing her emotional coldness arose from an abusive childhood and the trials of being a single mother. "Poetry is music and music is poetry, to me," Powell writes. Indeed, the work is structured like an album, with two "sides" that are followed by "bonus tracks." Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life is an acknowledged influence, and the musical references range from Tupac to the Beatles (in a playful piece composed around their song titles). The run-on phrasing, internal and end rhymes and repetition mimic rap rhythms.

Tupac: Reckoning

Everyone from Park Rangers to policy wonks - so-called ''non-essential'' workers - will likely be back at work Monday. A bill to keep the government functioning past the Oct. 1. deadline was set to pass the House and possibly the Senate today. But the bill, which President Clinton will likely sign, only delays the day of reckoning to Oct. 13 - when some of the 13 major spending bills may not be finalized. 041b061a72