"Requiem for New Orleans" is a lament for the destruction of a great city and scorn for those who allowed it to happen. Mike Sharpe writes: "New Orleans was not destroyed by a hurricane but by abandonment." Above all, "Requiem for New Orleans" is a meditation on our ability to overcome loss. It is an interweaving of biblical cadences, black idiom, standard American speech, jazz, and the caustic side of protest music. The author leaves us with a question: when will we learn what we must from the fate of New Orleans?.