Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant , poetry by Indran Amirthanayagam

Publication Date: February 1, 2022

Paperback, 100 pages

ISBN: 978-1-937968-98-4

$19.95 retail, $15.00 from publisher

There’s an adage that journalism is the first draft of history, but for the flesh-and-blood truth of lived experience, the “news that stays news” has always been poetry. And perhaps no poet is better situated to write of the tumultuous events of the recent past than Indran Amirthanayagam, a true global citizen. In Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant, he encapsulates the full range of emotion surrounding the 2020 U.S. presidential election and subsequent insurrection, taking place against the backdrop of a deadly global pandemic, from terror and outrage to euphoria and hope for “Joe and Kamala”, as he refers to the newly elected president and vice president, this familiarity itself a desire for a return to decency and simple human dignity. There are poems here that treat of politics and lofty affairs of state, a world the poet has experienced as an international diplomat, and of living through pandemic; but for the heart of the collection, look to his tender poem for his mother, and his desire to keep her safe, to hold her forever – “Decline and death are prohibited.” This same love is extended to all mankind throughout these poems. They are a celebration, but also a warning of the fragility of our tenuous step back from the brink of tyranny. And if the first bloom of hope for the Biden administration is already wilting a bit in the harsh glare of reality, that’s all the more reason to persevere. “We need to hear / the songs of your migrant heart,” he declares in his opening poem. We need to keep singing. We need to be prepared to take the next step, beyond the 10,000 steps it has taken to reach this point, ready for the moment “the world wakes up from / this pandemic dream alive and ready to move, / to make, to fill, and to rename the void.”

Praise for Indran Amirthanayagam & Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant

A powerful anthem for social justice, a heartfelt hymn to hope—in Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant, Indran Amirthanayagam asserts his rightful place as Poet Laureate of the People, a title hard-earned over a 30-year career forging an extraordinary repertoire that captures the pivotal moments of our time. Fiercely politically charged and deeply personally invested, this luminous collection of spirited, richly textured, skillfully lyrical and profoundly compassionate poems is a compelling entreaty to the soul of what makes us human. A protest march against longstanding inequities, Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant abounds with beauty and deep-seated philosophy, with tenderness and a wholehearted call to fellowship, an impassioned howl against the dying of the light in our hearts.

—Anne Casey

Indran Amirthanayagam writes while living in the middle of a plague.

He is a beauty defender in a world of terrible ugliness.

His poems breathe and walk upright.

Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant is a collection of poems of protest and concern.

To read this book of poetry is to be motivated to vote, to cry happy tears.

We must take that first step in the direction of bright moments.

During these flood years Indran Amirthanayagam is our Noah.

The time has come to release the doves.

—E. Ethelbert Miller

Indran Amirthanayagam writes the joyous anthem for recovery! With passionate attention to sound and flow as well as Solid, Straightforward Saying It—these cleansing poems embody spirited truth and activism. Hoorah, from our bizarre moments to sanity again! Allen Ginsberg would be proud.

—Naomi Shihab Nye

Indran Amirthanayagam’s new poetry collection, Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant, pays tribute to our country’s diversity, optimism, resilience, fortitude, and humanitarian impulses…. I treasure this book as a testimonial for the year that changed the world forever; it’s a 2020 map of despair and hope, a lantern raised in the darkness.

—Maurya Simon, from the foreword

About the Author

Indran Amirthanayagam (www.indranmx.com) writes in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole. He has published over twenty books of poetry, including Blue Window (translated by Jennifer Rathbun), The Migrant States, Coconuts on Mars, The Elephants of Reckoning (winner 1994 Paterson Poetry Prize), Uncivil War, and The Splintered Face: Tsunami Poems. In music, he recorded Rankont Dout. He edits the Beltway Poetry Quarterly (www.beltwaypoetry.com); curates www.ablucionistas.com; writes https://indranamirthanayagam.blogspot.com; co-directs Poets & Writers Studio International; writes a weekly poem for Haiti en Marche and El Acento; and hosts The Poetry Channel (https://youtube.com/user/indranam). He has received fellowships from the Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, The US/Mexico Fund for Culture, and the Macdowell Colony. He is a 2021 Emergent Seed grant winner. Forthcoming new books include Powèt nan po la (Poet of the Port) and Isleño.