In this remarkable collection-the first of its kind-poets from around the world give eloquent voice to the trials, hopes, rewards, and losses of the experience of migration.
Each year, millions join the ranks of intrepid migrants who have reshaped societies throughout history. The movement of peoples across borders-whether forcible, as with the Middle Passage and the Trail of Tears, or voluntary, as with the great migrations from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America to the United States and Western Europe-brings with it emotional and psychological dislocations. More recently, African and Middle Eastern peoples have risked their lives to reach safety in Europe, while Central Americans have fled north. Whatever their circumstances, these travelers share the challenge of adapting to being strangers in a strange land.
Border Lines brings together more than a hundred poets representing more than sixty nationalities, including Mahmoud Darwish, Czeslaw Milosz, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Ruth Padel, Warsan Shire, Derek Walcott, and Ocean Vuong. Their poems offer moving stories of displacement and new beginnings in such places as France, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A monument to courage and resilience, Border Lines offers an intimate and uniquely global view of the experience of immigrants in our rapidly changing world.

Foreword
 
CROSSINGS
NEIL AITKEN Outside Plato’s Republic, The Last Poets Wait for Departure
INDRAN AMIRTHANAYAGAM The Migrant’s Reply
MICHAEL BROEK From The Golden Venture
MARCELO HERNANDEZ CASTILLO Immigration Interview with Don Francisco
EDUARDO C. CORRAL Immigration and Naturalization Service Report #46
MAHMOUD DARWISH The Passport
ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO Wave
LORNA GOODISON Making Life
ANNIE KIM Map of Korea, 1950
NICK MAKOHA Stone
DUNYA MIKHAIL From The Iraqi Nights
D. NURKSE In the Hold
BAO PHI Adrift
DON SCHOFIELD Migrant Stories
SANDY SOLOMON Political Refugee, One Month On
CATHY SONG Picture Bride
JULES SUPERVIELLE Departure
MAI DER VANG Transmigration
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKI Refugees
 
PROMISED LAND
JOHN AGARD The Embodiment
AGHA SHAHID ALI Of It All
DREADLOCK ALIEN Fires burn in Bradford, Rockstone fling innah Oldham
MONIZA ALVI Rural Scene
MONA ARSHI The Daughters
RUTH AWAD Town Gossip
JAMES BERRY Roomseeker in London
ANDREE CHEDID My Rediscovered Land
FRED D’AGUIAR Home
GREGORY DJANIKIAN When I First Saw Snow
BERNADINE EVARISTO From Lara
MARISA FRASCA Anise Seed
RAY GONZALEZ Was Federico Garcia Lorca Lonely in New York?
MAGGIE HARRIS Llamas, Cwmpengraig
WILLIAM HEYEN A Snapshot of My Father, 1928
ROLANDO KATTAN The Pineapple Tree
CHRISTINE KITANO For the Korean Grandmother on Sunset Boulevard
TATO LAVIERA AmeRican
JACK MAPANJE After Celebrating Our Asylum Stories at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
KEI MILLER The only thing far away
AIMEE NEZHUKUMATATHIL Fishbone
RUTH PADEL The Prayer Labyrinth
SHAMPA RAY My India
WARSAN SHIRE Midnight in the Foreign Food Aisle
CHARLES SIMIC Explorers
CARMEN GIMENEZ SMITH Southern Cone
R.A. VILLANUEVA In Memory of Xiong Huang
JUDITH VOLLMER Mała Babka Pays an Evening Visit, Rolls Down Her Stockings and Looks Around
PATRICIA JABBEH WESLEY Poem Written from a Single Snapshot
JENNY XIE Naturalization
 
MOTHERLAND
DILRUBA AHMED Dear Masoom
KAZIM ALI Ursa Major
HADARA BARNADAV Chest
KAMAU BRATHWAITE From Guanahani
RAFAEL CAMPO My Voice
IMTIAZ DHARKER How to cut a pomegranate
ARACELIS GIRMAY The Fig Eaters, Fifth Estrangement
LORRAINE HEALY The country I flee from daily
ALLISON JOSEPH Immigrants  
JACKIE KAY In my country
SHARA MCCALLUM Psalm for Kingston
RO MEHROOZ Broken Mirror
VALZHYNA MORT Belarusian I
WIDAD NABI The Place Is Lit with Memory
PETER ORESICK Ruthenia
ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER Guyana: So Nice
ROGER SEDARAT Dear Regime,
JACOB SHORESARGUELLO Workshop
MARIANA SIERRA Mangoes at Kroger
GERALD STERN The Dancing
FADWA SULEIMAN Laurel
DEREK WALCOTT Sea Grapes
SHOLEH WOLPE 4th Movement
 
LABOR
LORY BEDIKIAN The Mechanic
KATHY ENGEL What could the title possibly be
TARFIA FAIZULLAH To the Bangladeshi Cab Driver in San Francisco
CARMEN FIRAN How I Am
KIMIKO HAHN A Flushing Villanelle
HA JIN Bargain
HEDI KADDOUR The Night Watchman
PHILIP LEVINE On the Birth of Good & Evil During the Long Winter of ’28
SHIRLEY GEOKLIN LIM Starlight Haven
ADA LIMON The Contract Says: We’d Like the Conversation to Be Bilingual
ADRIAN SANGEORZAN Underground Pearls
GARY SOTO Mexicans Begin Jogging
ADRIENNE SU Peaches
 
LANGUAGE
KAVEH AKBAR Do You Speak Persian?
SHAUNA BARBOSA Broke
LAUREANNE BOSSELAAR English Flavors
CHRISTIAN CAMPBELL Iguana
MARY JEAN CHAN Rules for a Chinese Child Buying Stationery in a London Bookshop
ANDREI CODRESCU ah, ach, vai bilingvism
INUA ELLAMS GuerillaGardenWritingPoem
RHINA P. ESPAILLAT Bilingual/Bilingue
JAWDAT FAKHREDDINE Land
ALBERT GOLDBARTH Shoyn Fergéssin: “I’ve Forgotten” in Yiddish
JANINE JOSEPH Assimilation
ILYA KAMINSKY Elegy for Joseph Brodsky
LI-YOUNG LEE Persimmons
ESTHER LIN Illegal Immigration
J. MICHAEL MARTINEZ Lord, Spanglish Me
CZESLAW MILOSZ My Faithful Mother Tongue
NAOMI SHIHAB NYE Arabic
OMAR SAKR Where I Am Not
OCEAN VUONG The Gift
ARNE WEINGART Born in Hungarian
 
COMMUNITY
JIMMY SANTIAGO BACA Green Chile
ROBERT BLY The Russian
KWAME DAWES A Way of Seeing
ROMESH GUNESEKERA Turning Point
ROBERT HEDIN The Old Scandinavians
JUAN FELIPE HERRERA Half-Mexican
ZAFFAR KUNIAL Us
KHALED MATTAWA In the Glorious Yemen Restaurant
CLAUDE MCKAY The Harlem Dancer
YESENIA MONTILLA Maps
DZVINIA ORLOWSKY When First Stars Appear
ALBERTO RIOS Border Lines
IRA SADOFF Nazis
CLAUDIA SEREA At Deb’s Party
RUTH KNAFO SETTON My Father Eats Figs
SUSAN TERRIS Great Grandfathers from Szumsk Offer Advice to My Children
REETIKA VAZIRANI Daughter-Mother-Maya-Seeta

Edited by Mihaela Moscaliuc and Michael Waters