Breaking the Jaws of Silence: Sixty American Poets Speak to the World

Contents

Contents Editor’s Note xi Foreword xiii Call and Answer 3 ROBERT BLY Lady Freedom among Us 4 RITA DOVE Your Beauty Is Overwhelming 6 NAOMI SHIHAB NYE Green 7 YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA On Reading a Biography of George Washington 9 ELOISE KLEIN HEALY End of the War, 1949 11 WILLIS BARNSTONE Kubota to Miguel Hernandez in Heaven, Leupp, Arizona, 1942 12 GARRETT HONGO Night in Blue 14 BRIAN TURNER This Place is Here 15 ANNIE FINCH Tienanmen, The Aftermath 18 MARILYN CHIN In Mystic 19 JOY HARJO All Hallows Eve 21 CHRISTOPHER MERRILL History Lesson 23 NATASHA TRETHEWEY An Essay on Liberation 24 DAVID ST. JOHN November 11 25 KIM ADDONIZIO Parable of the Jew without a Name 27 TONY BARNSTONE Tahrir 29 MARILYN HACKER Unrest 30 KIMIKO HAHN Summer of ’09 31 ANDREW HUDGINS Reading about Rwanda 32 CHARLES HARPER WEBB The Freeways Considered As Earth Gods 34 DANA GIOIA The Squash Man 36 STUART DISCHELL The Bridge of Intellectuals 37 RICHARD KATROVAS Dialogue (Of the Imagination’s Fear) 39 JORIE GRAHAM Nelson Mandela’s 90th Birthday [“Live in the Body, Long As You Will, Madiba”] 42 MICHAEL S. HARPER War Is Never Right 44 NIKKI GIOVANNI Athena Looks On 46 DAVID MASON Jerusalem: Easter, Passover 48 STANLEY MOSS Boy Shooting at a Statue 51 BILLY COLLINS Angels 52 WILLIAM HEYEN To Salah Al Hamdani, November, 2008 53 SAM HAMILL viii ✦ CONTENTS After the Fact 55 MARY JO BANG The Book of the Dead Man (The Vote) 56 MARVIN BELL The Museum of Stones 58 CAROLYN FORCHÉ Rules Governing the Exchange of Prisoners 60 DAVID WAGONER Language Acquisition: No and Yes 62 ALICIA OSTRIKER On Election Day 64 CHARLES BERNSTEIN Shoo 66 CAROL FROST Second Thoughts 67 ROBERT WRIGLEY Becoming Milton 69 COLEMAN BARKS World Cup 71 TOM SLEIGH In Prison 73 JEAN VALENTINE Now 74 JAMES RAGAN On the Ordination of a Zen Monk 75 NORMAN DUBIE Extraordinary Rendition 77 MAXINE KUMIN Staff Sgt. Metz 78 DORIANNE LAUX Ex-Embassy 80 CAROL MUSKE-DUKES August 6, and again on August 9 83 MAXINE HONG KINGSTON CONTENTS ✦ ix The Allusion of Seduction 85 QUINCY TROUPE Dear Prudence 87 JUAN FELIPE HERRERA Asphodel 88 GERALD STERN Dark Thirty 90 BARBARA RAS Teacup Manifesto 92 MOLLY PEACOCK Fatwa 94 SHARON DOUBIAGO What’s Fair Is Fair 98 RALPH ANGEL Poverty 99 CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY The Gatekeeper’s Children 101 PHILIP LEVINE More Poetry 102 CARL DENNIS The People of the Other Village 104 THOMAS LUX Wait 105 GALWAY KINNELL Afterword 107 Acknowledgments 109 Notes 113 List of Contributors 117 x ✦ CONTENTS ...