What They Bring - by Irene Willis & Jim Haba (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This is an anthology of poems by outstanding poets of diverse backgrounds (age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexuality, etc.) from the U. S. and elsewhere in the world. While the timeliness of the theme would suggest that its purpose is political, it is only incidentally so.xnbsp; Actually, it has the same aim as psychoanalysis: catharsis through emotional understanding that can lead to transformative change.

Although many poets have written about their personal experience as immigrants and that of their parents and grandparents, no single book of poems captures the experience of a diversity of cultures.xnbsp; For this book we have gathered Israeli, Palestinian, African-American, Hungarian, German, Hispanic, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Japanese, Native American, Jewish, Christian, Muslim.xnbsp; The poems reveal a range of experiences, from welcoming to hostile.

Review Quotes

xlt;pxgt;This anthology fulfifills a sorely persistent need in psychoanalyticxamp;nbsp;publishingxamp;mdash;the need to understand how we can acknowledge andxamp;nbsp;embrace the internal immigrant within each of us, the very act thatxamp;nbsp;would allow us to relate to each other regardless of our difffferences.xamp;nbsp;Poetry unites people regardless of where they come from; it is a rarexlt;br /xgt; gixxx1A;, a universal language of humanity that provides us with the wayxamp;nbsp;to withstand the violence, hatred and division growing among us.xamp;nbsp;Irene Willisxamp;x39;s and Jim Habaxamp;x39;s life work has been to help people fromxamp;nbsp;all walks of life fifind their way to this language. Both editors, each inxamp;nbsp;their own way, have ceaselessly worked within their communixamp;x39;es toxamp;nbsp;xlt;br /xgt; create and strengthen connecxamp;x39;ons that would thrive on difffferences, xamp;nbsp;not be thwarted by them. This anthology is long overdue. Now, morexamp;nbsp;than ever, our collecxamp;x39;ve immigrant experience needs to be idenxamp;x39;fified, xamp;nbsp;expressed and represented through the language of poetry to a widerxamp;nbsp;audiencexamp;mdash;psychoanalyxamp;x39;c and at large.xlt;br /xgt; xamp;mdash;ANNA CHUNG PHD., LPC, Clinical Instructor, xlt;br /xgt; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, xlt;br /xgt; School of Medicine and Health Sciences, xlt;br /xgt; George Washington Universityxlt;/pxgt;