American Diaspora: Poetry of Displacement

by Suarez, Virgil; Van Cleave, Ryan G.

• ISBN13: 9780877457473
• ISBN10: 0877457476
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Iowa Pr

Summary

Diaspora constitutes a powerful descriptor for the modern condition of the contemporary poet, the spokesperson for the psyche of America. The poems in American Diaspora: Poetry of Displacement focus on the struggles and pleasures of creating a home -- physical and mental -- out of displacement, exile, migration, and alienation.

To fully explore the concept of diaspora, the editors have broadened the scope of their definition to include not only the physical act of moving and immigration but also the spiritual and emotional dislocations that can occur -- as for Emily Dickinson and other poets -- even in a life spent entirely in one location.

More than one hundred and thirty contemporary poets reflect and meditate, rage and bless, as they tell their own stories. In short, this is an anthology of American poetry that draws upon the sensitivity, tenderness, rebelliousness, patience, and spirituality that point to the future of our nation.

Table of Contents

Editors' Note	xi
Virgil Suarez
Ryan G. Van Cleave
Acknowledgments	xv
I. DISLOCATIONS
Dialect	3	(2)
Mark Jarman
China Camp, California	5	(2)
Kim Addonizio
Passports	7	(3)
Patricia Goedicke
Generations	10	(2)
Kim Addonizio
The Years	12	(1)
Reginald Gibbons
In the Chips	13	(2)
Reginald Gibbons
Gallery	15	(2)
Albert Goldbarth
The Letter	17	(1)
Kasey Jueds
Exile	18	(3)
Sandra Castillo
Diasporadic	21	(2)
Patty Seyburn
On Forgettings	23	(2)
Patty Seyburn
Flood Plain: The Right-of-Way	25	(2)
Jim Shugrue
And Wake Up Where?	27	(2)
David Lazar
Political or Not, Here Comes that Poem	29	(2)
Wendy Bishop
Changing the Name to Ochester	31	(4)
Ed Ochester
Jose Canseco Breaks Our Hearts Again	35	(1)
Gustavo Perez Firmat
Poem for Pancho Gonzales	36	(1)
Leroy V. Quintana
Running to the America	37	(1)
Luis Rodriguez
City of Angels	38	(1)
Luis Rodriguez
The Emigrant	39	(1)
Katherine Sanchez
Willie and the Train	40	(1)
Carissa Neff
Distance Carolina Hospital	41	(1)
Mi Vida: Wings of Fright	42	(1)
Martin Espada
Thieves of Light	43	(3)
Martin Espada
Come to Find Out	46	(2)
Jacqueline Dee Parker
Poem for a Vietnamese Student	48	(1)
Leroy V. Quintana
Variations for Hendrix and Vietnam	49	(2)
Monifa Love
At the Bar	51	(3)
Ricardo Pau-Liosa
Years of Exile	54	(2)
Ricardo Pau-Liosa
California	56	(2)
Paul Hoover
Still Kicking in America	58	(1)
G.S. Sharat Chandra
Persona	59	(2)
Brigitte Byrd
Farragut North	61	(1)
Stanley Plumly
In the Twilight Zone All I Know Is the Commercials	62	(2)
Patricia Goedicke
Dust and Broughtonia	64	(1)
Randall Mann
Two Sounds	65	(1)
Michael Bugeja
Under the Freeway in EI Paso	66	(2)
Ray Gonzalez
Todorov at Ellis Island	68	(1)
Maxine Chernoff
Dixie	69	(6)
David Baker
The Extinct Homeland --- A Conversation with Czeslaw Milosz	75	(3)
Ana Doina
13th Arrondissement Blues	78	(2)
Barbara Hamby
La Lupe	80	(3)
Victor Hernandez Cruz
Rafael Hernandez	83	(3)
Victor Hernandez Cruz
To Be Sung on the Fourth of July	86	(3)
Wyatt Prunty
New York Public Library	89	(2)
Susan Thomas
Public School No. 18, Paterson, New Jersey	91	(2)
Maria Mazziotti Gillan
Whereabouts	93	(2)
Robert Phillips
Reading Kerouac, Yorkshire	95	(1)
Steve Wilson
King of Wounds	96	(2)
Sean Brendan-Brown
Easter, Circa 1960	98	(1)
Peter Johnson
Salt Longing	99	(1)
Austin Hummell
History Class	100	(4)
Tino Villanueva
Death of a War Hero	104	(4)
Michael Bugeja
Mercy and the Brazos River	108	(2)
Walt McDonald
Inventory	110	(2)
Laure-Anne Bosselaar
The Pallor of Survival	112	(2)
Laure-Anne Bosselaar
Colors of a Free Life	114	(2)
Marianne Poloskey
Guide to the Tokyo Subway	116	(4)
Halvard Johnson
Letter to Mirta Yanez	120	(2)
Orlando Ricardo Menes
Coral Way, Near the Roads	122	(1)
Orlando Ricardo Menes
The Refugee	123	(4)
Vijay Seshadri
II. AMERICAN JOURNEYS
Homecoming	127	(1)
Eric Pankey
From the Book of Lamentations	128	(1)
Eric Pankey
Loose Sugar	129	(1)
Brenda Hillman
Red Fingernails	130	(1)
Brenda Hillman
Photograph	131	(2)
Todd James Pierce
My Father Learns to Speak (Again)	133	(2)
C.V. Davis
The Cloud of Unknowing	135	(2)
Debora Greger
Exile	137	(1)
Stephen Corey
Digging Up Peonies	138	(2)
Vivian Shipley
Book of Ruth	140	(2)
Carolyn Beard Whitlow
Coaching My Father on His Temporarily Moving into My Old Bedroom	142	(1)
Miles Garett Watson
Love Penned Red	143	(1)
Sean Brendan-Brown
Lost and Found	144	(1)
Maxine Chernoff
Wind-Chill Factor	145	(2)
Gloria Vando
Waiting on Family Court	147	(1)
Jeff Knorr
Jew's Harp	148	(1)
Rodger Kamenetz
For Borscht	149	(2)
Rodger Kamenetz
Yes	151	(2)
Denise Duhamel
The Star-Spangled Banner	153	(3)
Denise Duhamel
Translating My Parents	156	(2)
Allison Joseph
Arturo	158	(2)
Maria Mazziotti Gillan
Lenox Hill	160	(3)
Agha Shahid Ali
My Father Recounts a Story from His Youth	163	(3)
Kevin Prufer
Jasmine	166	(3)
George Kalamaras
Dislocation	169	(3)
Ralph Adamo
How to Look West from Mount Pleasant, Utah	172	(3)
Seth Tucker
Heat Wave: Liberty, Missouri	175	(3)
Carolyne Wright
You, If No One Else	178	(2)
Tino Villanueva
A Note on My Son's Face	180	(3)
Toi Derricotte
Photo, 1945	183	(2)
Francisco Aragon
Auger	185	(2)
R.T. Smith
Ghost Passenger, Day and Night	187	(130)
Michael Dennison
Teshuvah	317	(1)
Lamar Thomas
Max Beckmann & Quappi in Blue	318	(3)
J.J. Blickstein
Green Ash, Red Maple, Black Gum	321	(1)
Michael Waters
Comcomly's Skull	322	(2)
Jim Barnes
Looking for Level Green	324	(1)
Judith Vollmer
Two Uncertainties	325	(1)
Paul Hoover
What Hurts	326	(1)
Gustavo Perez Firmat
Moment	327	(1)
Jane Hirshfield
Walking Back	328	(1)
William Trowbridge
A Flock of Phanton Limbs Gather at the Border	329	(2)
Bruce Bond
Elegy Written on a Blue Cement Gravestone (To You, the Archeologist)	331	(2)
Benjamin Alire Saenz
Poem from Across the Country	333	(2)
Margot Schilpp
Miami	335	(1)
Monifa Love
How It Begins --- How It Ends	336	(1)
Richard Blanco
Contributors' Notes	337	(20)
Permissions	357	(8)
Index	365