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• "and what is poetry if not the truth. and what is the truth if not a voice." - Truong Tran

  This is a searing book of poetry especially FOR everyone and anyone who has or will experience workplace discrimination, gaslighting, silencing. Anyone who has not (yet) experienced this might not realize the courage it takes to tell the story of what happens under the story. Of what it's like to be told not to talk about your feelings about discrimination in work emails. To have your work taken for granted, used by others sometimes without credit. And for another candidate who is inside the clique (white and has personal connections) yet less objectively qualified to get the job. The poet repeatedly references facts and not feelings. A lawsuit even. Words from that lawsuit's discovery. Yet what girds the telling of these facts is deep feeling. The searing pain that comes not only from being told to be silent but of silencing the self in order to aid the comfort of [white people]. Institutional silencing. This is a book I plan to keep on my shelves forever. I was involved in a complaint once against my employer. In a workplace meeting a white male coworker said that when a woman in a nearby department got a promotion he wanted to kick her in the *ss. He proceeded to stand up and make kicking motions. He had also been sent to anger management for screaming at my female boss. He had screamed at me as well, repeatedly. But when I went to HR they told me that I shouldn't worry. When he received a higher raise and the offer of a promotion in the same year that he made those comments and I complained again, I was labeled as someone who complains and on my next review I was told that I was not meeting expectations in any of the nine workplace values (collaboration, influence, emotional intelligence, development, accountability, leadership, achievement, innovation, or critical thinking) and I was placed on a performance plan to admit the error of my ways or to be fired. I was privileged enough to be able to leave that toxic work environment where I had been for seven years. I can only imagine the struggle for Tran continuing to work in a university where he is not valued nor seen. I wish him great success for this book which, if the powerful cannot see themselves in it, the less powerful surely will. One more quote that haunts me and that should haunt all of us (white--especially!) a series of questions addressed to you. first and foremost. would you say we are friends. if you were walking down the street. and you saw that i was fighting. with not one but two rather large individuals. a man and a woman. it was not a fair fight. i was getting my ass kicked. in case you're wondering. they are indeed white. let me remind you that in this inquiry. ive made the assumption that you are a friend. or a colleague. or perhaps even both. would you stop to intervene. if you saw from an arms length. that one guy had a knife. i was about to be stabbed from behind. would you shield me from that blade. would you clutch it with your bare hands. would you inform the authorities. would you scream or shout. so that our world could see. what was happening. would you stand next to me. would you hold my hand. would you be my witness. would you testify in court. would you say he is innocent. just to be clear. would you say that i am innocent. could you bear to look. are you willing to see. before you answer. let me be as clear as can be. this is not a poem. there is no room for the abstract. if you were walking down the hallway. attached to a room from where you once sat. as a peer. or as a student. perhaps at one point. we shared an office along this hallway. if you saw me fighting for my livelihood. my life. would you stand next to me. a series of questions to you. who i am still calling colleague. if not friend. where are you. is it worth it. why wont you look. is this worth the price of not seeing. of not wanting to see. is this worth the price of not saying.

• This poetry is for those who wish to listen, hear, feel, and think about facts.

  This is not an easy book of poems for anyone, and you shouldn't look for solace here. What's here is a pure poetry of fact and word, constructed in subtle motions. Truong Tran makes full use of the material of which English is made, as Gertrude Stein did.

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