This landmark anthology, the first of its kind, takes it impulse from the words of Bertolt Brecht: "In these dark times, will there also be singing? / Yes, there will be singing. / About the dark times." Bearing witness to extremity--whether of war, torture, exile, or repression--the volume encompasses more than 140 poets from five continents, over the span of this century from the Armenian genocide to Tiananmen Square.