Untitled

Untitled

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

We all die alone however we can,
as for me I’ll coil in a volcano’s
swooning crater
or dilute myself
in the path’s refrains
And if my heart stays
till trail’s end
I don’t see why my blood
can’t join the flood
beneath this ark, snatching
from the deluge of my human pasts,
from the face each agony showed me,
the cross or port’s beacon
we sailed from
(we sought a belly in common
to save us from the mass grave!)
Make it so blood swamps me
–better blood than brushfire!
Everywhere the doe flash
fire already in their eyes;
these deer, they have the knack of dying lewd.

(Translated from the French by Peter Thompson)

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x