Safety Trip

<p><strong>Anna Papadopoulos </strong>speaks in the voice of the poet as the conscience of the society. She speaks for the children of the Robb Elementary School tragedy-Dark-soled shoe stains in the center / where we've left our marks. She grieves a child falling from an airplane leaving Afghanistan-A firefly flashes in the sky will freeze / time like those stars that we can't see. She also explores her own immigrant experience: And we don't think about our old neighbors who warned their kids about us: Don't they know-they're in America now. This is a poet who puts on the page what others are afraid to admit they are thinking bearing witness in A Twenty-Three-Year-Old Dies Opening the Door. We live in unusual times-how easy it is to disappear / to lose focus like this pixelated face... Even so she chooses to find beauty in the world. In A Warm February Day in New York she continues to let the world speak to her and weave its magic: the sunset drops its pink hue like a crocheted baby's blanket. / The Verrazano Bridge's arches are sculpted in the shape of a woman's breasts.<strong> </strong>Anna Papadopoulos thinks deeply about everything and writes with power depth and beauty.</p><p><strong>-Diane Frank</strong> Author of <em>While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems</em></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Anna Papadopoulos'</strong>s marvelous first chapbook <em>Safety Trip</em> embarks on a family's immigration adventure between the redefined worlds of exile and belonging. Traveling through generations from World War II and the Greek Civil War to contemporary New York's lily blooming alongside a ditch the poet understands how to recover ordinary beauty against the odds until you've worn / loss like your Sunday best. These personal stories reflect survival's human thread bearing the weight / between us in times of crisis and joy. Employing the acquisitive eye of a novelist with the lyrical inventions of a poet Papadopoulos visually maps out an emotional space one can enter in any language and still call home.</p><p><strong>-Elena Karina Byrne </strong>is the author of five poetry collections and programming consultant <em>The Los Angeles Times</em> Festival of Books</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>