Richard Blanco

How to Love a Country Richard Blanco

The diverse poems in this collection form a mosaic of seemingly varied topics: the Pulse Nightclub massacre; an unexpected encounter on a visit to Cuba; the forced exile of 8,500 Navajos in 1868; the arrival of a young Chinese woman at Angel Island in 1938; the incarceration of a gifted writer; and the poet'Äôs abiding love for his partner, who he is finally allowed to wed. But despite each poem'Äôs unique subject matter or occasion, all are fundamentally asking one overwhelming question: how to love this country? Seeking answers, Blanco digs deep into the very marrow of our nation'Äîour cities and towns'Äîwith poems that interrogate our past and present, grieve our injustices and note our flaws, yet remember to celebrate our ideals and cling to our hopes. Blanco unravels the fabric of the American narrative, pursuing a resolution to the inherent contradiction of our nation'Äôs psyche and mandate: e pluribus unum (out of many, one), charged with the utopian idea that no single narrative is more important than another, and that America could and ought someday to be a country where all narratives converge into one. A country in which we can all truly thrive and truly love.