Public Poems

About the Book

Public Poems testifies to the struggles of God’s estranged children (all human beings) to reunite with our Cosmic Parent (Hana Nim) from whom we were separated due to fall of first human ancestors. These struggles are manifest in contemporary experiences described in everyday, accessible language. This book contains no “poetic” speeches or calculated “difficulties”. I have no interest in displays of academic erudition to tittilate elite intellects. I’m interested in what Whitman calls “a new tongue” that expresses hopes, fears, dreams, dramas of ordinary people searching for true God, true love, true joy, true peace. The new tongue is democratic.

About the Author

Asa Paschal Ashanti does volunteer work with the Universal Peace Federation, Ambassadors for Peace, Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, and other organizations founded by Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon (True Parents). He lives and writes poems in Charlotte, North Carolina. Poems must connect with readers. Helena Maria Viramontes said, “If we don’t have readers who dance with us, what happens to the literature we make?” Public Poems is Ashanti’s first published volume of poetry. It is, among other things, an invitation to dance. “Yes we shall...we must dance” March 2008 APA