My second post, “Suheir Hammad, ‘breaking poems’ (Cypher Books, 2008)” (in which I’ve included and edited my original breaking poems post is up at the Poetry Foundation blog. Here’s an excerpt:
And so for those American poets who doubt the existence or relevance of well-written political poetry in the USA, for those who think “political poetry” is just a post-9/11 fad, I would say to leave your comfy little academic and abstract circles and open your minds to poets coming out of communities of color, immigrant communities, multilingual communities, communities of working folk and families, these American poets’ communities, and see that “political poetry” has always existed, has always been necessary, has always been crafted and spoken and sang, has always served to educate, inspire, and mobilize its constituents.
