Skip to main content

poetry The View From Poland

Poet and activist E. Ethelbert Miller considers what it's like to be caught in the crosshairs of two superpowers.

In the afternoon when you remove

your glasses the Russian soldiers

march into Ukraine. Now is the time

to hide the jazz instead of walking

the dog. There is always something

artificial about human intelligence

which is why there is always another

war sunbathing somewhere. If we

must surrender to strangers let it

If you like this article, please sign up for Snapshot, Portside's daily summary.

(One summary e-mail a day, you can change anytime, and Portside is always free.)

only be for love.

E. Ethelbert Miller was born in the Bronx and educated at Howard University. He is the author of 13 books of poetry, two memoirs, and edited 3 anthologies. Miller has taught widely and for 40 years was director of Howard University's African-American Resource Center. A former editor of Poet Lore, the oldest poetry magazine in the U.S., he hosts the weekly radio show "On the Margin."