Poetry & Migration: Featuring Mai Der Vang

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend March 21, 2017 #WeComeFromEverything   Dear Exile,   Mai Der Vang

Never step back    Never a last Scent of plumeria   When my parents left You knew it was for good         It's a herd of horses never            To reclaim their    steppes   You became a moth hanging Down from the sun   Old river    Calling to my mother Kept spilling out of her lungs   Ridgeline vista closed Into the locket of their gaze                        It's the Siberian crane            Forbidden    to fly back after winter   You marbled my father's face Floated him as stone over the sea   Further    Every minute Emptying his child years to the land   You crawled back in your bomb              It's when the banyan must leave      Relearn to cathedral its roots            From Afterland, published by Graywolf Press. Copyright © 2017 Mai Der Vang. Used with permission of Graywolf Press. About This Poem   "My parents came to this country as Hmong refugees from Laos after the country collapsed and the Vietnam War ended. I wrote this poem for them, who were so viciously uprooted and ripped away from their landscape of belonging, all of which had been prompted by a government's political agenda. I grieve for a country that I know they can never truly return to." —Mai Der Vang Join Us: Because We Come From Everything   This week we'll be showcasing poems that speak to the theme of immigration, as part of the Poetry Coalition's national initiative Because We Come From Everything: Poetry & Migration.   Join this initiative by learning more about your local community. Visit the American Immigrant Council for state-specific data and facts about the immigrant population where you live.   And share your favorite lines from this week's poems with #WeComeFromEverything. Writing from the Absence: Voices of Hmong American Poets Read more poems, essays, and books about migration and immigration. Read this week's other poems on migration from Poem-a-Day.   Mai Der Vang is the author of Afterland, selected as the winner of the 2016 Walt Whitman Award, and forthcoming in April from Graywolf Press. She lives in Fresno, California.   Photo credit: Andre Yang Poetry by Vang   Afterland (Graywolf Press, 2017)  "Heavy" by Hieu Minh Nguyen "from Two Inch Fables" by Marilyn Chin "Swell" by Hoa Nguyen Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038