Poems / January 29, 2024

from Earth’s Last Word (A superstitious poem)

Valerie Hsiung

Can we count on you?

In the coming election, the fate of our democracy and fundamental civil rights are on the ballot. The conservative architects of Project 2025 are scheming to institutionalize Donald Trump’s authoritarian vision across all levels of government if he should win.

We’ve already seen events that fill us with both dread and cautious optimism—throughout it all, The Nation has been a bulwark against misinformation and an advocate for bold, principled perspectives. Our dedicated writers have sat down with Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders for interviews, unpacked the shallow right-wing populist appeals of J.D. Vance, and debated the pathway for a Democratic victory in November.

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Valerie Hsiung

Valerie Hsiung is the author of multiple poetry and hybrid writing collections, including The Naif (Ugly Duckling Presse, forthcoming 2024), The only name we can call it now is not its only name (Counterpath), To love an artist (Essay Press), selected by Renee Gladman for the 2021 Essay Press Book Prize, and outside voices, please (CSU), selected for the 2019 CSU Open Book Prize. Born in the Year of the Earth Snake and raised by Chinese-Taiwanese immigrants in Cincinnati, Ohio, she now lives in the mountains of Colorado where she teaches as Assistant Professor of Creative Writing & Poetics at Naropa’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics.

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