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We the Dangerous: New and Selected Poems
A selection of poems on a wide range of subjects - from the internment experience which silenced the poet's own family and that of many Japanese Americans, to the Gulf War.
164 pages, Paperback
First published January 26, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 21, 2025
I wish Janice were my aunt, my neighbor, my dive bar buddy. I feel she has seen and lived with so much. I feel I could listen to her for hours. I feel we could laugh, drink, and sob through the tales. No one would be better for it, but we'd be alive after having shared the experience.
This potent collection of poems lays bare the raw nerve of life. The reader is not spared. Looking is necessary. This is the human stain. These writings show communal and individual resilience, especially in the face of the mass Japanese Incarceration of WWII and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Here, her poems paint the page with blood, semen, saliva, and the dust of teeth. Mirikitani paints with the horrors and traditions of life. Here, the cooped-up terrors are set free. One can only hope this statement holds true for the speaker who declares, “Every time I break my silence, I earn my freedom” (53).
Although this collection is littered with great poems, these were my favorites:
Wild Jody
Graciela
Jungle Rot and Open Arms
The Abortion
You Turned Your Head
Where bodies are buried
Cry
Generations of Women
This potent collection of poems lays bare the raw nerve of life. The reader is not spared. Looking is necessary. This is the human stain. These writings show communal and individual resilience, especially in the face of the mass Japanese Incarceration of WWII and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Here, her poems paint the page with blood, semen, saliva, and the dust of teeth. Mirikitani paints with the horrors and traditions of life. Here, the cooped-up terrors are set free. One can only hope this statement holds true for the speaker who declares, “Every time I break my silence, I earn my freedom” (53).
Although this collection is littered with great poems, these were my favorites:
Wild Jody
Graciela
Jungle Rot and Open Arms
The Abortion
You Turned Your Head
Where bodies are buried
Cry
Generations of Women
February 13, 2017
Mirikitani uses personal experience, historical actions, and formatting the page to present us with a powerful book of poetry. Like any book of poems, some work and some don't, but on the whole I am glad to have picked this book up. I remember reading this years ago, so the fact that it remains lodged in my brain is a testament to its power.
Most notably, this was one of my first experiences reading about the Japanese internment camps from someone , or at least whose family was, directly affected by them. (The American schooling system of the 90s really didn't like talking about what we did wrong in society...) I knew that it was bad, and I knew that it was even worse when we consider that we were a lunatic away from what Germany was doing at the time, but I never really got the extent of what internment meant. This book ended up being a powerful first step in educating myself on the matter.
Most notably, this was one of my first experiences reading about the Japanese internment camps from someone , or at least whose family was, directly affected by them. (The American schooling system of the 90s really didn't like talking about what we did wrong in society...) I knew that it was bad, and I knew that it was even worse when we consider that we were a lunatic away from what Germany was doing at the time, but I never really got the extent of what internment meant. This book ended up being a powerful first step in educating myself on the matter.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews