Afghanistan On the soldiers' shoulders Ride the white doves of peace With their eyes poked out As long as the Afghan people Are in need of help The soldiers will remain And remain and remain We cry out Butterflies and crickets in bondage But who will understand The language of butterflies and crickets Those breathing freedom Have a different set of problems A shorter memory They slip off to sleep untroubled One day to wake up In Afghanistan Scrap After us will be neither scrap metal Nor a laugh From beginning to end We have had no illusions All our uprisings Lie packed in the foyer Along with a toothbrush And towel When someone knocks on the door The echo Pounds through the empty years But there is no call to action No convoy to Siberia Only the upstairs neighbor whose sink Once again has overflowed He comes wringing his hands to warn us Last Supper Thirteen of us still not released A full table Though missing Are Christ and Judas Victims of a cruel death And we the living Are joined together To share our lost cause The hand With the rusted nail		Artful Dodge is currently handling distribution of the book. To purchase a copy, please send $10 to the following address. Prices for multiple copies and bookstore orders are negotiable. Artful Dodge Department of English The College of Wooster Wooster, OH 44691 "A friend and fellow writer, speaking in reference to contemporary poetry, remarked to me not long ago that the true poets are not those in search of something to write about, but those whose subjects have discovered them. I find this confirmed in reading the poems of Tasz Jastrun." -John Haines "Here at last we have a generous selection of Tasz Jastrun's poems and prose chronicling the disintegration of Poland, and celebrating the unlikely survival of the human spirit. We have Daniel Bourne to thank for guiding these poems into English." -John Witte, Editor, Northwest Review "Deep gratitude to Daniel Bourne and Salmon Run Press for making available in English the profoundly moving voice of Polish writer, Tomasz Jastrun. This is crucial, empowering work." -Naomi Shihab Nye On the Crossroads of Asia and Europe collects the poetry and satirical prose of Polish writer Tomasz Jastrun, winner of the 1983 "S Prize" from Underground Solidarity for his poetry during Poland's martial law period in the early 1980's. Daniel Bourne teaches at The College of Wooster (Ohio), where he edits Artful Dodge, a journal of new American writing and literature in translation. Since 1980 he has been a frequent visitor to Poland, including on a 1985-87 Fulbright fellowship for translation work with younger Polish writers. Salmon Run Press is one of only two Native American-Owned Publishing houses in America. Its titles are distributed internationally in the US, Canada, England, and Australia. Each year since 1991, Salmon Run has sponsored the National Poetry Book Award, of which On the Crossroads of Asia and Europe was the selection for 1998.
138pp / Paperback / $10.00  ISBN 1-887573-05-4