What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump

by Brian Turner (Contributor), George Evans (Contributor), Marge Piercy (Contributor), Gary Soto (Contributor), Demetria Martinez (Contributor), Doug Anderson (Contributor), Dorianne Laux (Contributor), Marilyn Nelson (Contributor), Chen Chen (Contributor), Daisy Zamora (Contributor), Maria Mazziotti Gillan (Contributor), Alicia Suskin Ostriker (Contributor), David Mura (Contributor), George Wallace (Contributor), Carolyn Forche (Contributor), Chase Twichell (Contributor), Lawrence Joseph (Contributor), Aracelis Girmay (Contributor), Don Share (Contributor), Cyrus Cassells (Contributor), Luivette Resto (Contributor), Mark Turcotte (Contributor), Brian Clements (Contributor), Lauren Schmidt (Contributor), Brian Turner (Contributor), Gary Soto (Contributor), Marilyn Nelson (Contributor), Don Share (Contributor), Marge Piercy (Contributor), Carolyn Forche (Contributor), Doug Anderson (Contributor), George Evans (Contributor), Luivette Resto (Contributor), Maria Mazziotti Gillan (Contributor), George Wallace (Contributor), David Mura (Contributor), Dorianne Laux (Contributor), Lawrence Joseph (Contributor), William Pitt Root (Contributor), Tarfia Faizullah (Contributor), Tara Betts (Contributor), Seibles Tim (Contributor), Sean Bates (Contributor), Sasha Pimentel (Contributor), Ruth Sanabria (Contributor), Richard Villar (Contributor), Rafael Campo (Contributor), Peggy Robles-Alvarado (Contributor), Paul Martinez Pompa (Contributor), Patrick Rosal (Contributor), Pamela Uschuk (Contributor), Nicholas Samaras (Contributor), Naomi Ayala (Contributor), Marty McConnell (Contributor), Leslie McGrath (Contributor), Laurie Anne Guerrero (Contributor), Kathy Engle (Contributor), Katherine DiBella Seluja (Contributor), Kamilah Aisha Moon (Contributor), Julio Marzan (Contributor), Joseph Ross (Contributor), Hoagland Everett (Contributor), Hayan Charara (Contributor), Emmy Perez (Contributor), Elisabet Velasquez (Contributor), Eleanor Wilner (Contributor), Denice Frohman (Contributor), Dante DiStefano (Contributor), Afaa M. Weaver (Contributor), Adam Grabowski (Contributor), E. Ethelbert Miller (Contributor), Ruth Goring (Contributor), Jan Beatty (Contributor), Paul Mariani (Contributor), Richard Michelson (Contributor), Robert Pinsky (Contributor), Sam Hamill (Contributor), John Murillo (Contributor), Patricia Smith (Contributor), Luis J. Rodriguez (Contributor), Ocean Vuong (Contributor), Gabriel Ramirez (Contributor), Yusef Komunyakaa (Contributor), Juan Felipe Herrera (Contributor), Willie Perdomo (Contributor), Samuel Hazo (Contributor), Richard Blanco (Contributor), Jim Daniels (Contributor), Naomi Shihab Nye (Contributor), Kwame Dawes (Contributor), Jane Hirshfield (Contributor), Julia Alvarez (Contributor), Alicia Suskin Ostriker (Contributor), Danielle Legros Georges (Contributor), Maria Nazos (Contributor), Chen Chen (Contributor), Benjamin Balthaser (Contributor), Cyrus Cassells (Contributor), Chase Twichell (Contributor), Demetria Martinez (Contributor), Cynthia Dewi Oka (Contributor), Chard Deniord (Contributor), Lauren Schmidt (Contributor), Martín Espada (Editor), Aracelis Girmay (Contributor), Danez Smith (Contributor), Martín Espada (Editor), Benjamin Balthaser (Contributor)

• New

  Paperback
  2019

  $29.03

  This is an anthology of poems in the Age of Trump-about much more than Trump. These are poems that either embody or express a sense of empathy or outrage, both prior to and following his election, since it is empathy the president lacks and outrage he provokes.
  
  There is an extraordinary diversity of voices here. The ninety-two poets featured include Juan Felipe Herrera, Richard Blanco, Carolyn Forche, Patricia Smith, Robert Pinsky, Donald Hall, Elizabeth Alexander, Ocean Vuong, Marge Piercy, Yusef Komunyakaa, Brian Turner, and Naomi Shihab Nye. They speak of persecuted and scapegoated immigrants. They bear witness to violence: police brutality against African Americans, mass shootings in a school or synagogue. They testify to poverty, the waitress surviving on leftovers at the restaurant, the battles of a teacher in a shelter for homeless mothers, the emergency-room doctor listening to the heartbeats of his patients. There are voices of labor, in the factory and the fields. There are prophetic voices, imploring us to imagine the world we will leave behind in ruins lest we speak and act.
  
  However, this is not merely a collection of grievances. The poets build bridges. One poet steps up to translate in Arabic at the airport; another declaims a musical manifesto after the hurricane that devastated his island; another evokes a demonstration in the street, an ecstasy of defiance, the joy of resistance.
  
  The poets take back the language, resisting the demagogic corruption of words themselves. They assert our common humanity.