Robert Pinsky is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he was poet laureate consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress. This poem was originally read at a Writers Resist event hosted by PEN America at the New York Public Library on January 15, 2017. The views expressed here are his.

(CNN) 'Exile and Lightning'

You choose your ancestors our

Ancestor Ralph Ellison wrote.

Now, fellow-descendants, we endure a

Moment of charismatic indecency

And sanctimonious greed. Falsehood

Beyond shame. Our Polish Grandfather

Milosz and African American Grandmother Brooks

Endured worse than this.

Fight first, then fiddle she wrote.

Robert Pinsky

Our great-grandmother Emma Lazarus

Wrote that the flame of the lamp of the

Mother of Exiles is "Imprisoned lightning."

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