Contributors: Rae Armantrout, David Baker, Jennifer Benka, Charles Bernstein, Sophie Cabot Black, Billy Collins, Peter Cook, Nicole Cooley, Mark Doty, Rita Dove, Dana Goodyear, Jorie Graham, Marilyn Hacker, Kimiko Hahn, Suheir Hammad, Joy Harjo, Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Edward Hirsch, Jane Hirshfield, Bob Holman, Marie Howe, Major Jackson, Suji Kwock Kim, Susan Kinsolving, Edward Ledford, David Lehman, Philip Levine, Donna Masini, Cleopatra Mathis, J. D. McClatchy, Heather McHugh, Carol Muske-Dukes, Willie Perdomo, Carl Phillips, Robert Pinsky, Adrienne Rich, Luis J. Rodriguez, Michael Ryan, Edward Sanders, Grace Schulman, Philip Schultz, Vijay Seshadri, Beau Sia, Paul Simon, Marc Kelly Smith, Patricia Smith, William Jay Smith, Lisa Russ Spaar, David St. John, Anne Waldman, Susan Wheeler, C. K. Williams, C. D. Wright.
Summary:
"A poetic relay race across the continent: fifty-four poets responding to ideas of America--and to each other. This is a collaborative journey of impressions--from the election and inauguration of President Obama, through foreclosures, job losses, chords of country music; and bombs in Baghdad, to a poet-soldier's rifle-sight in Afghanistan. The renga itself, in the ancient tradition of Japanese linked verse, provides the form of this historic conversation among the poets, as they meditate, within ten lines, on a moment in America. Crossing State Lines begins with Robert Pinsky's recounting of a line of poetry by Lincoln as fall deepens and 'maples / kindle in the East,' and ends some five hundred lines later, with Robert Hass's 'greeny April' on the Pacific coast"--Publisher description.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.