Portside

Labor Day Weekend, a time to acknowledge the burdens of hard work, Washington state poet Ira Woodward plays on the phrase "raising the floor"--meaning not only a moment to rest, but also time to raise the wages of working people.

In this mordant poem, Lee Rossi moves between massive tragedy and small tragedy, and the human temptation to avert the eye from the one or the other.

This three-part poem by Canadian poet Morgan Christie addresses a violent racial encounter, the response, and the consequence once upon a time, but something that seems contemporary.

Dedicated to Frieda Kahlo, Linda Rodriguez's poem celebrates the spirit of revenge, the immortality of the Mexican painter's suffering and triumph.

Colorado poet Pamela Uschuk, longtime activist, lovingly depicts how McCarthyist teachers and neighbors confused her Russian background with subversive activities, firmly defending her cultural roots.

California poet Charlotte Muse tries to enter the mind of a person capable of committing torture, justifying torture, an issue from the George W. Bush era that refuses to fade away.

On July 27, 1919, the appearance of an African American swimmer near a white beach provoked a citywide pogrom in Chicago. Poet Renny Golden depicts the incident and a wade-in that integrated the shores during the 1960s.

A Lebanese poet from Dubai, Zeina Hashem Beck offers two poems, Thirty-Two and in a Different Country and The Invented Mothers, both touching the deep trauma of warfare on civilians.

The Marin County poet Francesca Bell approaches the abuse of children from their own perspective, as sacrilege, based on published testimonies.

Louis Armstrong believed his birthday was July 4, 1900 (though a recent discovery suggests August 4, 1901 is correct). But Elaine Feinstein's portrait of that great trumpet player just starting out seems appropriate for this American holiday weekend.