The Irish aren’t the only poets; just the only poets who matter. Fortunately, Irish attitude comes in all colors, sizes, genders and nationalities. While carrying the entire spectrum of a hundred turbulent peoples draped across the bones of her verse, Rose McAleese remains neither intimidated nor embittered by her plunge into constant future unknowns. This book by renowned spoken word poet marks McAleese’s graceful, first-time assent to the freezing of her kinetic verbal images into tomorrow’s bookshelf treasure. No young American poet more successfully balances naiveté against experience, transmutes cynicism with tinctures of romance, or armors her own tenderness with learned ferocity.Strong. Female. Character. is recommended reading for earnest girls, cynical young women, wise crones and all men of emotional courage.