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An exploration of freedom by some of the world's most celebrated poets, published for the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi camps The year 2015 marks the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and the conclusion of the Second World War. But around the world, oppressed and imprisoned people are still longing for freedom and asking, "What does it mean to be free?" This collection of poems explores that question.In honor of this anniversary, some of the world's top contemporary voices-including Rita Dove, Robert Pinsky, Jay Parini, Yusef Komunyakaa, Agi Mishol, Tsering Woeser, Han Dong, Ernesto Santana, and Richard Blanco-have written poems on the theme of liberation as it inspires them personally and creatively. Nearly all of their poems are published for the first time in this volume.The result is an artistic representation of the universal yearning for freedom from twenty-five countries-and countless stories of oppression, imprisonment, and liberation. Here are Afghan women writing in secret, Tibetan and Cuban dissidents, memories and hopes inspired by topics from Fergusson to the Middle East, from illness to spirituality to joy in nature. This collection demonstrates the power of art to heal and to bring attention to freedom as a universal human right.Lyrical, uplifting, contemplative, sometimes angry, sometimes hopeful, always masterful, these are enduring poems to enrich and inspire.From the Trade Paperback edition. Intro -- Title -- Contents -- Foreword: A Matter of Spirit, by Ha Jin -- Introduction: Liberation, by Mark Ludwig -- PART I: "so they might know what liberation is" -- On Being Asked to Write a Poem on the Theme of Liberation -- After Liberation -- The Song About the Child -- Libretto -- After Ferguson, in Culver City Studios -- First Drink -- The Last Resort -- The Unknown -- Dancing "fancy" -- Flight -- PART II: "We are the drums of our ancestors' hearts" -- Sketch for Terezín -- Child Survivor's Testimony -- Legacy -- Poem of Disconnected Parts -- Horse-Fly -- Lament -- Moon Landing 1969 -- Death by Fire -- Reading About Terezín -- The Foundation -- PART III: "No country Untouched" -- Trayvon-Redux -- Moksha -- The Account of a Recent Travel -- The Fisherman -- 276 -- In Waiting -- Alphabets to a Home -- Doaa -- There Is No Cure for MS -- Road -- FBI Questioning During the 2009 Presidential Inauguration -- October After Mike Brown's Death -- Landays -- Refugees from Little League -- Traces of the Tibetan Year of the Rat -- PART IV: "a ghost of gunmetal drones overhead" -- Poem -- Memorial Haibun -- De-Mobbed -- A Lament for Military Secretaries -- Momma Galya Armolinskaya -- Sunday Morning in a Time of War -- The Mountain -- When Every Story Begins With Wolf -- PART V: "Death sails into the gilded ballroom in purple satin" -- Liberation-and Return? -- Those Who Return to Him Empty -- Leaving Limerick in the Rain: A Letter to Ireland -- Oratorio -- Empty Garden -- People Can Tolerate Everything . . . -- The Dark -- No Casualties Reported -- Samurai Song -- La Valse -- Emancipation, a Remembrance -- One Photograph of a Rooftop -- Orders of the Day -- PART VI: "Speak when broken" -- Take This Poem and Copy It -- The Empty Cot -- Autobiography -- Mother Tongue -- what it was -- For My Daughter -- PART VII: "think of the trapped wren" -- Does Grace.
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