Free Speech

<p>Eric Paul Shaffer's <em>Free Speech</em> includes two poem sequences addressing the endangered species of liberty in the American vernacular. First <em>Road Sign Suite</em> presents poems of vehicular freedom inspired by familiar and surprising highway signs on an open road trip through the asphalt and interstate guts of the nation. Then <em>Restoring Lady Liberty</em> explores constitutional freedom during the national renewal as the Statue of Liberty struggles to maintain the ideal while the torch passes from light to gold. The essay Between a Road and a Gold Place: An Interface welds the two sequences together statue to interstate. In these poems America has never been clearer in traffic sign iron structure or clashing symbols.</p><p></p>