#PopsugarReadingChallenge Book 8: Names

Popsugar Reading Challenge category: Shortest book on your TBR pile
Names: Poems by Marilyn Hacker

Marilyn Hacker is the queen of formal poetry, and her signature sonnets appear throughout the book, but also lesser-known forms such as glosa and ghazals. Many of the poems are set in the Middle East, so the ghazal (originally an Arabic form) seems appropriate. The title poem is a series of sonnets about women activists, all hidden behind pseudonyms. She doesn't shy waway from politics, as in "Ghazal: dar al-harb:"

I might wish to write, like Virginia: as a woman, I have none,
but women and men are crushed beneath its weight: my country....

Plan your resistance, friends, I'll join you in the street,
but watch your backs: don't underestimate my country.

Where will justice and peace get the forged passports
it seems they'll need to infiltrate my country?

---