This work contains a rich Caribbean world in poems offered to readers everywhere. Olive Senior's rich vein of humour can turn wry and then sharp in satire of colour-consciousness, class-consciousness, and racism. But her predominant tone is the verbal equivalent of a pair of wide-open arms. This collection goes down deep, drawing on presences and powers that have shaped the Caribbean and the lives and languages of its people. Olive Senior writes poetry of refreshing candour and craft, and she does so in the ancient figures of the poet - as messenger, maker, and magician. She knows what words can do, and what they have done; and she shows how we live our lives in stories and songs, possessed by what belongs to us. "Gardening in the Tropics" tells of the strange and the familiar, of blessings and curses, of extraordinary characters in everyday situations. It is a wonderful gathering of poems.