Free Speech

Eric Paul Shaffer's Free Speech includes two poem sequences addressing the endangered species of liberty in the American vernacular. First, Road Sign Suite 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, Restoring Lady Liberty 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.