Portside

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.

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.

Prize-winning poet Jericho Brown points to a caution: “if you hear/Of me dead anywhere near/A cop, then that cop killed me.”

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.

Mississippi poet Philip C. Kolin links the corona virus to its tragic economic consequences.

Kansas City poet H.C. Palmer puts the blame on Trump (where it belongs): “For the past 8 months, the president watched with indifference as hundreds of thousands of Americans died and tens of millions were disabled from COVID-19."