Political Prisoners USA and Other Poems, Broadstone Books, 98 pages, 2025.
Political Prisoners USA and Other Poems by James Madigan is a necessary debut that draws on expansive public and private experiences to create a lamentation for racial and social inequality. The poems are daring and direct, igniting consciousness and conscience. Smooth and intimately detailed, this writing calls the reader to action. “Look to the person next to you. Look them in the eye and say:/I will be there with you—.” The reader can count on a reliable speaker, a poet with a vision, and a mission. “Political Prisoners USA: A poem in five parts,” is the narrative thread that intermittently snaps the reader out of disappearing entirely into reflection. His correspondences with political prisoners creates a dose of reality, a sharp pain in the reader’s side: persecution and incarceration exist. The language Madigan uses in the face of such disappointment is lyrical, innovative, and deeply moving.
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Before Dawn I Rend My Clothes
Turn on the light
Look
at the pig shit
We are choking on it
Every night I read
My country’s history
of land acquisition
and before dawn I dig up my yard
Look at the snake entwined
with the intestines
food for the eagle
Look at the blood in the water
this blood in the shit
Every night I read
My country’s history
of abuse of black people
and before dawn I rend my clothes
Every night I read
My country’s history
of profit wrung from working people
and before dawn I burn my shoes
Every night I read
My country’s history
of weapon development
and before dawn I wreck my car
Every night I read
My country’s history
of care for rivers and lakes
and before dawn I rip out the plumbing
Every night I read
My country’s history
of bringing democracy to the world
and before dawn I pull out my fingernails
Every night I read
My country’s history
I am choking on it
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James Madigan was born in Chicago, the eldest of twelve children. He began writing and publishing poetry in retirement after twenty-five years in public library administration. He is a long-time political activist in peace and social justice movements. He returned to school after retirement, and was the recipient of the Michael Anania Award for Poetry in May 2022, awarded by the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the father of three daughters, and lives with his partner in Oak Park, Illinois.
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