In this inspired cycle of poems, Arupa Chiarini shares her personal healing in the voices of her ancestors, accessed through rituals learned from two Yoruba priests. Beginning with the voice of infant Sarah Teft, who died in 1624 in Massachusetts at age two, Arupa stitches a pattern of a troubled family, generation to generation, leading finally to her own tragic childhood. The cycle of poems and healing is completed in the voice of Arupa's infant sister, Edith Susan, who died by family violence at age one, when Arupa was three years old.

Like Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology and Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood, The Ancestors Are Calling Down the Rainbow lends itself to dramatic reading. It is a splendid way to share the beauty and power of these poems in a family, group, or community.

"Arupa Chiarini's first book of poems is exhilarating, both as literary art and as an example of healing." - DEANNA ALLEN, Ph.D., Psychology