NPM 2023 - Poem 8

My poem for Day 8 of National Poetry Month is written to Roy Takeno reading paper in front of office / photograph by Ansel Adams. 

Free Press in Manzanar

There was nothing free

in this "reception center"

240 miles from the sea

in a high-walled mountain valley

where US citizens

treated as aliens and enemies

were interned

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2023. All rights reserved.

I hope you'll join me tomorrow for my next poem highlighting a piece of history. You can read the previous poems as images on Instagram or at the links below. Each one is listed according to the primary source that inspired it.

April 1 - Sketch map of White Oak Swamp and vicinity southeast of Richmond.]; 6/1862; Records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers, Record Group 77 
April 2 - John Wilkes Booth's calling card
April 3 - Section of the city code of Montgomery, Alabama, requiring segregation on buses
April 4 - 1917 poster showing Liberty presenting a sword "Service" to a young woman
April 5 - Sheet music cover for Votes for Women: International Suffragists' Song
April 6 - Teachers' Monthly Report and Rules (1865): Narrative School Reports from Teachers and Superintendents of Freedmen's Schools
April 7 - Letter from Governor Ross Supporting Apache Removal (1886)