With Our Eyes Wide Open: Poems of the New American Century

by Doug Valentine (Editor)

Overview

With Our Eyes Wide Open is an anthology composed of poets from America and around the world who write about the struggles of the world's outcasts, immigrants, and working classes—victimized and then forgotten as nations clash and wage relentless war. Although diverse in their ethnicity, experience, and writing styles, the contributing poets are united by a common interest in promoting peace, justice, and human welfare. They tell of Vietnam and Cambodia, Latin America, Afghanistan, Iraq, Serbia, Chechnya, and Africa. They are concerned for the environment and the well-being of society as a whole, and in this respect they represent an emerging poetic consciousness that is helping to define and shape the imagination and language of the twenty-first century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780991074204
Publisher:	West End Press
Publication date:	04/15/2014
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Doug Valentine is the author of four books of historical non-fiction, one short novel, and one book of poems. He lives with his wife, Alice, in Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Editors Note Douglas Valentine xi

Part 1 Alabanza

USA, "Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100" Martin Espad 3

Uruguay, "The Nobodies" Eduardo Galeano 5

Nicaragua, living in USA, "Salvadoran Woman Killed on Fillmore Street" Daisy Zamora 6

Lesotho, living in France, "Moulters" Rethabile Masilo 7

USA, "American Sonnet (10)" Wanda Coleman 8

USA, "Sometimes She Dreams" Laura Tohe 9

Australia, "For I Come - Death in Custody" Lionel G. Fogarty 10

South Africa, "Beginnings of Disease" Lesego Rampolokeng 12

USA, "War Metaphysics for a Sudanese Girl" Adrie Kusserow 14

USA, "Faith" Tim Seibles 16

Chechnya, living in Greece, "Words" Jazra Khaleed 18

Turkey, "At War" Metin Cengiz 20

Greece, "State Terrorism" Dinos Sioris 21

Lesotho, living in France, "The Boy Who Would Die" Rethabile Masilo 22

South Africa, "For Stompie" Makhosazana Xaba 23

USA, "if he didn't keep appearing" Sarah Menefee 24

Turkey, "Now do not tell me of men!" Müesser Yeniay 25

Poland, "Sign of the Times" Ewa Sonnenberg 27

USA, "4:02 p.m." Suheir Hammad 28

USA, "Ruins" Eliza Griswold 30

Part 2 Love at a Distance

South Africa, "Love at a distance, a cycle for America" Phillippa Yaa de Villiers 32

Serbia, "A Whistle Over Belgrade" Bratislav Milanovic 34

USA, living in Italy, "Crossing the Vtalva River" Lance Henson 35

Lesotho, "Resigned to my karma" Phomolo Lebotsa 36

USA, "American Income" Afaa M. Weaver 38

Israel, "Sharon" Aharon Shabtai 39

USA, living in Serbia, "Unwanted Neighbors" Paul Polansky 41

Australia, born in Gaza, "A Confession" Samah Sabawi 42

Canada, born in Kiev, "Poem for Samah" Lia Tarachansky 44

Italy, "The Shadow" Valeria Magrelli 47

USA, living in Italy, "Their Screams Live in My Ears" Pina Piccolo 48

USA, "Your Poems Are So Political" Margaret Randall 50

Part 3 Jumping Jack

USA, born in Vietnam, "Jumping Jack The M16 Mines" Teresa Mei Chuc 54

USA, "M-16A2 Assault Rifle" Hugh Martin 56

USA, born in Hong Kong, "Names of the Dead" Floyd Cheung 57

"Names of the Dead II" 58

USA, "The Black Camel" David Allen Sullivan 59

Australia, "Shake 'n Bake" Tim Thorne 64

Iraq, "Inanna Moaning" Sabah Mohsen Jasim 65

USA, "Rueful Outlays for a Conscript" Linh Dinh 67

USA,"VA Hospital Confessional" Brian Turner 68

USA, "Iraqi Poets Society" Julia Stein 70

USA, "The Iraqi Curator's Power Point" Philip Metres 72

USA, of Iranian descent, "Drone" Solmaz Sharif 74

France, born in Tunisia, "Afghanistan" Tahar Bekri 76

Russia,"…Again they're off for their Afghanistan" Elena Fanailova 79

Part 4 Cell Phones Burning

India, "Why Rabbits Never Sleep" Menka Shivdasani 82

USA, born in Kashmir, "Sunday Bath" Rafiq Kathwari 84

USA, born in Iraq, "Tears" Dunya Mikhail 87

Iraq, living in London, "Passage to Exile" Adnan al-Sayegh 88

USA, "Ode to the Little 'r'" Aracelis Girmay 90

Poland, "Madame Iutuita" Izabela Morska 92

USA, born in Cambodia, "Our Neighborhood in Revere, MA; Circa 1984 and 2008" Bunkong Tuo 94

USA, "Cell Phones Burning" David Morse 96

USA, born in Luxembourg, "Wordswarm 20 April 2010" Pierre Jori 97

Jamaica, living in USA, "Estimated Prophet: Version" Geoffrey Philp 99

Ireland, living in USA, "Patient" Greg Delanty 100

USA, born in Vietnam, "Depleted Uranium" Teresa Mei Chuc 101

USA, "Side Effects" Laren McClung 102

Part 5 Drums in the Night

USA, "Coaching Winter Track in Time of War" W. D. Ehrhart 106

USA, "Torsion" Yusef Komunyakaa 107

Vietnam, "Written in Red Tears" Vuong Tung Cuong 109

Vietnam, "The Sound of Drums in the Night" Dau Phi Nam 111

USA, "Song of Napalm" Bruce Weigl 112

Chile, "The Truce" Patricio Manns 114

Nicaragua, "A Memory of Language" Gioconda Belli 116

USA, "Guatemala 1988" J. Patrice McSherr 120

Chile, "Such is the choquero" Jorge Montealegre 122

USA, "The Colonel Comes Calling" Bill Tremblay 125

USA, "The Eyes of Korea" Wilson Powell 128

USA, "Habeas Corpus" Tyehimba Jess 131

Australia, born in Czech Republic, "Ripping off morality and the Timorese" Vacy Vlazna 132

Australia, born in England, "ouroboros" Paul Summers 133

Part 6 Eyes Wide Open

Guatemala, "Important Things Happen" Gerardo Guinea Diez 136

Turkey, "A Bird's Nest in Gezi Park" Müesser Yeniay 138

Oman, "Desert Spring" Ali Saif Al Rawahi 139

USA, born in Egypt, "What is to Give Light" Yahia Lababidi 140

Morocco, "Your smile is sweeter than the national flag" Taha Adnan 141

Australia, "Love" Lionel G. Fogarty 144

Russia, "Stop Me Like Blood" Dimitri V. Psurtsev 146

USA, "13 ways of looking at the towers (a 9/11 poem, 10 years later)" Evie Shockle 147

USA, poem "Eyes Wide Open" Sain Hamul 150

Appendix:

Notes on the Title and Selected Poems 755

Acknowledgments 162

Contributor Notes 170