State of the Union: 50 Political Poems

From rough optimism to sharp criticism, fifty American poets present new work dissecting the current political climate in America. Wide-ranging writers bring their bold voices to this collection, including Eileen Myles, Matthew Rohrer, Rebecca Wolff, Terrance Hayes, Joe Wenderoth, and Tao Lin.

"Walking by Hope Street"

Look at the landscape,
A lot of damage, no?
But we are here together,
And of needing me, here
The world needs me,
We are too alone.
And what of our orange daylight,
Growing darker as the lamplit
Trees grow dark. There
Is not enough to say.
But our hands, our gentle
Frozen hands sift through
Things like numbers out of breath.
It will all be okay, I promise.
Promise who? Promise the faded land.
--Noelle Kocot

"Literary Agency"

Coretta Scott
King has died, the other
day. Dream
unrealized. Lost
and found, lost again, bathos
my motivation
my Elysian
dream. The place
inside
untutored, incorruptible,
without relation. That's
something to hold onto,
and uncontingency
dressing the wound. That's
sad and just "what it is."
It is what it is.
That's what I say
when I can't bear the news.
--Rebecca Wolff

Joshua Beckman was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His previous books include Your Time Has Come, and two collaborations with Matthew Rohrer. He lives in Seattle and New York. Matthew Zapruder is the author of two collections of poetry: American Linden and The Pajamaist (Copper Canyon, 2006), selected by Tony Hoagland as the winner of the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. He is also co-translator of Secret Weapon, the final collection by the late Romanian poet Eugen Jebeleanu.