About Little Charlie Lindbergh and Other Poems

"About Little Charlie Lindbergh," like earlier Margaret Randall poetry collections, presents a unique poetic voice by a revered elder in the genre. These poems are all about making connections, many of them unexpected. Randall links national events with intimate family moments, ancient ruins with present-day communities, and prehistory with history (making a convincing argument for the former as a part of the latter). Everyday speech and expressions that have become social cliches or advertising banter find their way into these poems and acquire the precision of literary elegance. Straightforward speech becomes passionate lyricism. This book gives lie to the notion that so-called political poetry must by nature come off as propagandistic; complexity and grace are always present. The poems collected here pay attention to birth, love, loss, Jewish identity, domestic and international violence, the environment, language, art, class, race, gender, and sexual identity. All these seemingly disparate subjects are linked by an empowering way of seeing and saying. This is social justice poetry that packs a wallop and moves the reader deeply.