Portside

“The debts we make are never paid, for us behind the wall,” write the incarcerated poet Cory Lambing, offering a glimpse of what it’s like to be inside.

Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest celebrates the beloved “Indian Country,” even welcomes people aboard, but adds a surprise twist to the invitation.

As the San Francisco poet Beau Beausoleil explains, “The tidal wave of commercialized mourning for the Queen prompted this poem to write itself.”

“Ours in an old war,” says the poet Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer. “It has a beard and calls itself Uncle.”

This Labor Day, the poet A.D. Winans pays tribute to the workers of the world.

Has the war become boring, asks San Francisco poet Beau Beausoleil, how can you not hear the mourning birds?

On the third anniversary of the El Paso Massacre of Latin Americans, prize-winning poet Martin Espada offers a tribute to a human rights lawyer killed by a shooter.

Phillips County, Arkansas, hometown of the most lynching, inspired the poet Gerry Sloan to remember the tragedy at Elaine a century ago.

“I want to say their names,” says California poet Patrick Daly about children killed in the classroom, not as balm, but to stress our “obstinate coming back…the relentless heart.”

“Chemicals were not the answer,” says the Massachusetts poet Katley Demetria Brown. “They were the cause.”