Portside

Southern California poet Teresa Mei-Chuc speaks back to the US lethal “counter-terrorist” Phoenix Program during the Vietnam War.

The Palestinian-American poet Noor Hindi does not “write about flowers,” but about the effects of colonization on her people.

For California poet David Alpaugh, despite the promises of peace or justice, the violence of war lives on.

“I was trying to understand, on a smaller scale than national politics,” writes Vermont poet Rebecca Starks, “how an obvious falsehood can seem obviously true to someone else.”

The Persian American poet Majid Naficy warns of celebrating a change of regimes too soon.

California poet John Field rejoices as the political seasons trade places.

Poet Joe Cottonwood writes about " an underground railroad/of farmworkers" along the coast of California, a sad story with a good ending.

A heavy burden we all carry in 2020: What’s missing? asks Arizona poet Lollie Butler. People, smiles and faces.

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

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.