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Speech in an Age of Certainty examines the widespread and systematic use of violence, oppression, extraction, and propaganda by the powerful and wealthy.  These 34 poems reflect my concern with the use of power to exploit the weak in both historic and contemporary settings. Inevitably this led to poems regarding police brutality, Hiroshima, settler colonialism,war-for-profit, identity, history of our sins and finding balance. 

 


Sample Poem from Speech in an Age of Certainty
 

Fracking

 

        "Lithosphere." Def. Rigid, rocky outer layer of the Earth consisting of the crust.

                                                                      -https://www.britannica.com

 

be with me

when senses wake

to the bed's

 

shaking frame,

the ground rumbling

underfoot

 

as a fault line

slips and widens up

to swallows us,

 

as needles twitch

on the Richter scale

at the shifting

 

between

tectonic plates.

we could shout,

 

No fracking

in the lithosphere!

or just lie

 

in bed and say,

While it lasted, the sex

was great.

 

either way,

we're burning down

our last cigarette.


 

Reviews et al

Speech in an Age of Certainty is a colorful collection of timely pieces by J. Khan that tackles police brutality, identity, history of our sins and finding balance.  Khan offers reflective, lyrical poems that question one’s place in the world.  A lovely collection that captures the voices of many who are silenced
–Rosalyn Spencer, editor Rigorous Magazine

"The author tackles contentious contemporary issues with skill in a lyrical but unflinching style that personifies and personalizes the marginalized people in his poems. A few brief interludes between more political poems reflect on environmental concerns, which of course are also political in their own way. A lot of thought and hard work went into this collection. Highly recommend."
- Meg Freer

J.Khan’s new book is filled with intense, vivid language. Be ready for a high-speed chase as he critiques political injustices and assaults on the environment.
- Denise Low-Weso, Kansas Poet Laureate

 
Colliding voices animate the parallel worlds of those who feel oppression and those who oppress in this urgent collection of verse by J. Khan. The backdrop is a damaged, devastated earth. While exposing the limits of witness, “I scarcely fathom the howl,” the poet compels our attention (and hopefully our action) in these vivid, reflective poems.
–Catherine Anderson, author of Everyone I Love Immortal.
 

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