The pamphlet Twenty-One Love Poems (1977), which was incorporated into the following year's Dream of a Common Language (1978), marked the first direct treatment of lesbian desire and sexuality in her writing, themes which run throughout her work afterwards, especially in A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far (1981) and some of her late poems in The Fact of a Doorframe (2001).
O panfleto Twenty-One Love Poems (1977), incluído en Dream of a Common Language (1978), supuxo a primeira vez que se trataba o desexo e sexualidade lésbicas na súa escrita, temas que percorren o seu traballo posterior, especialmente en A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far (1981) e algúns dos seus últimos poemas en The Fact of a Doorframe (2001).