To Speak in Salt

“For many years, Becky Thompson has brought poetry to refugees in Greece, and they have brought poetry to her. To Speak in Salt is a testimony to that exchange, packed with poems keenly observing people and places where “barbed wire doubles as a fence / a clothesline for diapers.” These are poems weighted with the question of what it means to be a witness to those who have survived the worst, yet still find a way to persist, to pray, and even to praise.–”

“To Speak in Salt is the heartrending story of a people of maps and stars, men and women with olive trees in their blood, and families huddling on rafts married to water fleeing violence and famine. Becky Thompson unfolds each story with lyrical grace and keen insight.”

“To Speak in Salt is crafted like a hand-made rosary, each poem, each bead holds its own shape and all the pieces come together across Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine and other sites of displacement and exodus to tell stories of refuge and survival, longing and loss, the endless waiting and hoping for a life with dignity.”

“To Speak in Salt is a compelling tapestry of truths—political, linguistic, cultural, geographic and above all, human. A historical document as much as a work of art, it captures in fewer words what reams of journalism and NGO reports have failed to. Its myriad voices cannot—and must not—be ignored.”