Levine died in 2015, a Pulitzer Prize winning poet who had been Poet Laureate from 2011-12.  These volumes arose from his quite modest beginnings in Detroit, a place memorialized in his poems about working men and women, the poverty of cities, and the spirit of those who soldier on.  He has a fairly dark view of the world, untouched by false optimism.  His poems are often set in urban slums where it is dark, raining or snowing, cold, though gardens with flowers and vegetables are often described beautifully as well.  His poems are forceful and beautiful in their power.