Portside

The prize-winning poet Carl Dennis offers an ironic thanksgiving greeting, one that reminds us of what blessings we North Americans have as well as the abuse we have made of those very blessings.

Chicago poet Donna Pucciani speaks to the cruel conditions facing young refugees, the idea they are not even people.

Fear of the dark, how people felt on the eve of the presidential election, 2020.

Mississippi poet Ann Fisher-Wirth addresses the persistence of racial injustice at Ole Miss and elsewhere: “I grieve/I cannot march.”

In this season of politics, the Persian exile Majid Naficy speaks on behalf of principles and integrity.

The great American Bard Walt Whitman (1819-1892) celebrates what all citizens must do next Tuesday: VOTE!!

In the morbid world of coronavirus, Colorado-based poet Camille T. Dungy finds spontaneous happiness in a familiar song and dance.

Martín Espada gives an eloquent elegy to Dr. Ramón Emeterio Betances, a Puerto Rican abolitionist and revolutionary who addressed issues of pandemic and racial oppression.

California poet Mary Bailey captures the voice of a Syrian girl from Aleppo who, with assistance from her English-speaking mother, sent messages through Twitter documenting the siege of the city.