99 Poems for the 99 Percent

My poem, Beit Sahur, is included in this anthology edited by Dean Rader. The title the poem refers to that place outside of Bethlehem known as the Shepherd’s Fields, where the angels were said to appear to the shepherds when Christ was born. The poem was written in response to the end of the Occupy Boston encampment, December 2009.

Born out of poet Dean Rader’s blog, begun at the height of the “great recession” and at the infancy of the Occupy Movement, the 99 poems in this anthology represent the diverse ways in which 99 American poets have engaged with and responded to the broader social and political crises of our time.

These are poems of anger, love, protest, humor, contemplation, hope, frustration, and beauty. These are poems by the famous and the marginal, by the heard and the ignored. These are poems that speak to the past as well as the future. These are poems of and for the real America. These are poems for you.