April Ossmann, a former executive director of Alice James Books, has published a timely collection simply and optimistically called “We.” It’s a stirring effort to heal America’s deadly political conflicts with heart and wit.
In the title poem, which echoes Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” she writes, “I celebrate my being, every atom / of myself and you, lamp and mirror / of all that is.”
Here’s Ossmann’s reimagining of “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which was written by the abolitionist Julia Ward Howe in the early 1860s when America was even more violently divided than it is now:
Peace Hymn for the Republic
My eyes have seen the gore in every battle of the hordes,
my heart knows all that swords achieve is breeding ever more;
but listening tends the vineyards where the grapes of peace are stored;
Her truth is teaching us:
Glory be, in civility!
Glory be, in civility!
Glory be, in civility!
Her truth is teaching us.
I can hear a better future so content with harmony,
that no man or woman will deny our rhapsody,
intolerance will burn in fires of divinity.
Her love is changing us.
Glory be, in civility!
Glory be, in civility!
Glory be, in civility!
Her love is changing us.
She has sounded loud the trumpet that need blow for no more wars,
she’ll learn to play jazz standards and throw open all the doors;
she’ll welcome every one of us to dance forever more.
Her joy invites us in.
Glory be, in civility!
Glory be, in civility!
Glory be, in civility!
Her joy invites us in.
With hearts full of compassion that transfigures you and me;
let no one die to grow our souls, but live to make us free —
let every rainbowed nation dance and sing in harmony.
Our love unites us all.
Glory be, in civility!
Glory be, in civility!
Glory be, in civility!
Our love unites us all.
Excerpted from “We: Poems.” Copyright © 2025 by April Ossmann. Published by
Red Hen Press