Description: Blending the personal with the political, these poems explore the deleterious effects of adversity and trauma on a global scale, focusing on such subjects as immigration laws, environmental degradation, multinational corporate greed, and the effects of war on women and children. The poet makes unexpected connections between disparate things, drawing from wild nature for imagery while also passionately engaging the reader to become aware of injustice and suffering at home and abroad. The poems are crafted using lyrical language that is at once precise, figurative, and celebratory, creating a collection that is humanitarian and emotionally resonate.
Review Quotes: These poems are matrices of earth creatures, winds, suns and the need to replace travesty with justice. Each is aflutter with bird song and skeleton dance. The book is a mountain climb to vision. We look out over the ruin, the celebration. Wild in the Plaza of Memory is Uschuk's best collection thus far. --Joy Harjo, author, How We Became Human New and Selected Poems: 1975 - 2001