This anthology includes selected works of some of the most active and dynamic contemporary poets writing in North America. Reflecting to varying degrees sensibilities based on ancestral Asian homelands and on lives in Canada and the United States, the poetry reproduced here is of a wide-ranging appeal and refreshing modernity, depicting a shifting, kaleidoscopic landscape of cultural and spiritual heterogeneity and individual interpretations. Includes works by Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Marilyn Chin, Chitra Banerjee, Garrett Hongo, Kimiko Hahn, Carolyn Lei-Lanilau, David Mura, Michael Ondaatje, Sasenarine Persaud, and Arthur Sze.

Meena Alexander -- Brown skin, what mask? -- Passion -- Elephants in heat -- News of the world -- Art of pariahs -- Agha Shahid Ali -- The dacca gauzes -- A dream of glass bangles -- Snowmen --I see Kashmir from New Delhi at midnight -- Himani Bannerji -- Voyage -- In this fugitive time -- End notes -- Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge -- The blue taj -- Chinese space -- Tan Tien -- Texas -- Sadhu Binning -- A tale -- River relations -- That woman -- Rebellious Sita -- Marilyn Chin -- Tiananmen, the aftermath -- Beijing spring -- Elegy for Chloe Nguyen -- Gruel -- Turtle soup -- Madeline Coopsammy -- First hot dog -- Naomi: lost woman -- Roots -- The second migration -- Rienzi Crusz -- Conversations with God about my present whereabouts -- When Adam first touched God -- Elegy for the Sun-Man's father -- The rain doesn't know me any more -- After the snowfall -- Cyril Dabydeen -- For Columbus -- Declaration -- My mother -- Horses in the dark -- My sundry life -- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.