Portside

Poet Philip Kolin depicts the plight of the homeless: “They give/American progress a bad name…”

California Rabbi Irwin Keller chooses no sides in the wars but pleads for unconditional peace.

California poet Esther Kamkar speaks about Immigrants, refugees, their perilous conditions In a world of displacement.

Poet Alexandra Umlas uses the subtle form, a sestina, to convey the tenuous substance of American political poetry.

California poet Joseph Zaccardi reminds us that war veterans carry their burdens through their lifetimes.

Another bombing, writes Poet Melanie Tafejian, “Ten people died./ Seven of them children….” Another mistake.

The poet Naomi Shihab Nye expresses a child’s sense of helplessness, trapped by politics and war.

Among the many things the USA left behind in Vietnam, besides pride, remains safely underground.

“And now we mourn the temperate days,” writes Chicago poet Donna Pucciani, as the news of weather is seldom good.

Loss of liberty, the rise of civil terror, asks San Francisco poet Beau Beausoleil. Is that where we are headed?