Landing Stage is a new poetry collection by American poet Joan Michelson. It is bold work that gives a voice to the displaced, the haunted, the hunted and the murdered - victims of genocidal regimes. This powerful collection is the Third Prize winner, SPM Publications Poetry Book Competition 2016.
"I grew up with the mantra Never Again and believed that the worst trauma was behind us, that history had taught us to cease destroying one another, one nation upon others. I have had to grow up again. The deaths of countless Syrians, Afghans, Eritreans, Somalis, Sudanese and others in nations in the grip of war, the displacement to transit camps and other temporary homes in escalating numbers, is a sobering riposte. Never has been severed from Again.
With the severing, the question has taken a tighter grip. How do we live with the history of trauma, as members of our community, and individually? How do we learn about it? How do we express our feelings?"
This excerpt from Joan Michelson's Preface to Landing Stage captures some of the burdens she deals with herself and through the various poetic voices represented or portrayed in this collection.