If we don’t seek, how will we learn?
The Academy of American Poets is offering a series, curated by 2016 Walt Whitman winner Mai Der Vang, featuring poems by and discussions with Hmong American poets.
Our country is enriched by its great diversity, yet we too often passively accept only what comes to us. Read these poets. Listen to their words. This is who they are. Who we are.
O at the Edges 
Kinda sad that melting pots mean that sometimes things are lost, diluted, homogenized. I just heard that there is a petition in Kenya for recognition of Asians (mostly western Asians from India) as the 44th tribe in the country.
Been there 5 generations, since colonial times and still treated and think/feel like foreigners, many of them. Other in their own homeland. Sound familiar?
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All too familiar.
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Yes very true.
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The more we look, the more we learn.
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Indeed we do.
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Thanks for sharing these voices. Most grateful,
Emily
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There are so many unheard voices, Emily. I hope to share at least a few.
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That is SO great you are getting the word out on Hmong culture… opening up your readers to these special people! You are a true humanitarian desu ne!!!
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This is the year for reaching out, Daniel. For sharing.
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This is indeed the year for reaching out and sharing!それは完全に真実です！
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This is amazing! The poem of the Cluster Bombs is both beautiful and chilling! Thanks Robert for sharing this bit of the Hmong people.
Dwight
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Yes, most definitely chilling!, And you are very welcome, Dwight.
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Thanks for the pointer.
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I learn something every day, Jazz, yet I can’t seem to make even the tiniest dent in my ignorance. Sigh.
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Amazing
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I relish these voices!
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Thank you so much for bringing the awareness. I greatly appreciated reading the different perspective.
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You are very welcome. I hope to share other voices.
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Mai Der Vang….”poetry is the country I never had. It is in the terrain of words—their formation on the panorama of a page, their utterances of another world, real and imagined, their silences, as well as their openness to shelter the history and offer asylum to the stories of a landless people—that poetry then becomes my homeland.”—Boom! Right to the heart. Thanks, Robert.
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Yes – “the country I never had.”
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Thank you for sharing, had a quick browse look forward to spending some quality time reading later in the day shared with my twitter friends.
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Enjoy the read, Chris!
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My pleasure to read this
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As it was mine to pass it on.
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Pingback: Hmong American Poets – disue
My sister-in-law is Hmong. It was a delight to read and share with her and “their” family.
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I’m so pleased to have shared this!
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Hi Robert. Poets are world wide are we not but one family? Thank you for liking “My Own Humility!” Best Wishes. TheFoureyedPoet.
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Nice work.
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Thank you.
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Thank you for this post. I checked out the poems and just wow!
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Oh, yes. Some fantastic writing!
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