Dry, hot, cold, wet, the African continent presents an endless range of physical environments. Cultures abound, and a white man's interaction with Africa defines and inevitably illuminates time and space, specifies the pain and elation in what its environments present. Free verse lends its freedom to a fresh look at life in desert, jungle, and high mountain locales, allows the poetic hand to nail down its involvement with birth and death, freedom's wish and the endless cycle of renewal and defeat.