Poetry. With new and selected work of an important contemporary California poet, A SWEETNESS RISING collects the life work of Roberta Spear (1948-2003), a masterful poet whose writing is nationally acclaimed by both her peers and generations of readers. "You could say at times she saw stories where there were none or where she simply invented them, exotic stories of gypsies and pranksters, travelers and seekers. Her] vision will continue.moving and touching readers for as long as people care about American poetry" -Philip Levine.