Calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.
By Shadab Zeest HashmiYour august birth, my taking oath as an American, were only weeks apart.
The most I can remember is your rocking to a dull ache before we were apart.
Our hill was plush, the whole place soaked up the scent of raisin pulao.
By Kathi WolfeI'm in my seat,
averting my eyes,
those funhouse mirrors,
By Truth ThomasShayna reads the Word and takes
the story of that first miracle as
serious as unpaid electric bills in
winter
By Lisa L. MooreWord got out about the bad bill.
College students packed up their bikinis,
went back to Austin to tell those men why
By Patricia MonaghanThey were always taught that all guns were loaded.
It was a way, he said, to keep them safe.
Don't you notice, he said, how people get shot
By Jericho BrownThey said to say goodnight
And not goodbye, unplugged
The TV when it rained. They hid
By Remica L. BinghamThe weight of my parents,
the dawn of them;
my grandmother's lackluster
By Emily K. BrightIt is nearly midnight and I'm
scrubbing at the grout.
The dishes, washed,
By Samiya BashirBrother I don't either understand this
skipscrapple world that is--these
slick bubble cars zip feverish down