Saturday, Oct 24, 2026
Focus on the big picture

Amit Majmudar reads his poem 'Vocative'

PBS, 23 Sep 2020
The top of Amit Majmudar's poem "Vocative" reads, "English is my native anguish."
In part a play on words, the poem is about how English is Majmudar's native language, but it's not necessarily his mother tongue, or the language that he used speaking with his mother growing up.
Majmudar said his poem "Vocative" is about migration, immigration and "the way we take in language, and language makes us something that we weren't from before."
The poem is part of Majmudar's latest poetry collection, "What He Did in Solitary."

Photo by Ami Buch Majmudar

Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG
Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

Follow us:
Facebook: http://www.pbs.org/newshour
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/newshour
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/newshour


Subscribe:
PBS NewsHour podcasts: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/podcasts
Newsletters: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/subscribe
Related Articles