In this Book
- Out of the Dust: New and Selected Poems
- Book
- 2014
- Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
- Series: Intersections: Asian and Pacific American Transcultural studies
summary
Out of the Dust is a collection of new poems by activist, leader, poet, and editor Janice Mirikitani. After being named San Francisco’s second Poet Laureate in 2000, this fifth book of poems from Mirikitani was written in response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
Drawing from her own background as a Sansei (third generation) Japanese American, Mirikitani reflects on the many ways we connect through the dust and our ability to rise and renew ourselves from this place. From the dust of the World Trade Center in New York to the retaliatory ashes of the dead in America’s war in Afghanistan, the poems in this volume seek to explicate the connections of our humanity to the reactionary profiling of people of Middle Eastern descent and different ethnicities, comparing these choices to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Table of Contents
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- Introduction: Out of the Dust
- pp. ix-x
- Out of the Dust
- pp. 1-2
- The Grass Is Defiant
- pp. 3-4
- When Mothers Talk
- pp. 5-7
- A Thousand Cranes
- pp. 11-12
- Ehren Watada
- pp. 13-14
- High Heels and False Teeth
- pp. 15-17
- Being Here
- p. 18
- Some Women
- p. 19
- Imperfect Enough
- pp. 20-21
- Letter to My Daughter
- pp. 22-23
- Kathy Change
- pp. 35-36
- For the Price of a Rental Car
- pp. 37-38
- On Her Wedding Day
- pp. 39-40
- Dance with the Stranger
- pp. 42-44
- Step Fiercely
- pp. 48-49
- You Are in My Eyes
- pp. 50-52
- Haiku for the de Young
- pp. 53-55
- Winter Waka
- p. 56
- New Year Tanka
- p. 57
- Last Place on Earth
- pp. 61-62
- Desert Flowers II
- pp. 63-65
- We, the Dangerous
- Looking for America
- pp. 68-69
- Looking for America
- p. 71
- Beauty Contest
- pp. 72-76
- Jungle Rot and Open Arms
- pp. 90-92
- We, the Dangerous
- pp. 93-94
- Desert Flowers I
- pp. 95-97
- Breaking Silence
- pp. 98-99
- Insect Collection
- pp. 100-101
- You Turned Your Head
- pp. 102-103
- Bowl of Rage
- pp. 104-105
- Where Bodies Are Buried
- pp. 106-117
- Without Tongue
- p. 118
- Breaking Silence
- pp. 119-122
- Prisons of Silence
- pp. 123-127
- For My Father
- pp. 128-129
- Hospitals Are to Die In
- pp. 130-131
- Woman with Straight Back
- pp. 132-133
- Woman with Straight Back
- pp. 134-137
- Orchid Daughter
- pp. 141-142
- Without Comfort
- pp. 143-144
- Generations of Women
- pp. 145-151
- Sing with Your Body
- pp. 156-157
- Late with Lunch
- pp. 158-159
- Late with Lunch
- pp. 160-162
- Wrong Place, Wrong Time
- p. 164
- Suicide Note
- pp. 168-169
- It Isn’t Easy
- pp. 170-171
- Tongues Afire
- pp. 172-173
- War of the Body
- pp. 174-176
- What Matters
- pp. 177-179
- Breaking Tradition
- pp. 184-185
- Shadow in Stone
- pp. 186-189
- Tongues Afire
- pp. 190-191
Additional Information
ISBN
9780824847944
Related ISBN(s)
9780824839963
MARC Record
OCLC
890324164
Pages
144
Launched on MUSE
2014-10-03
Language
English
Open Access
No