WATCH: Rita Dove reads her poem ‘Beside the Golden Door’

In her new series of poems, Rita Dove focuses on a “witness” -- the Statue of Liberty -- who “is looking out over the world that we live in, wondering how we got there.”

“Truth would say these are arrogant times,” Dove reads at the end of the series’ first poem, “Beside the Golden Door.” “Believers slaughter their doubters while the greedy oil their lips with excuses and the righteous turn merciless; the merciful, mad.”

“Beside the Golden Door” and others in the series “A Standing Witness” is in Dove’s new volume of poetry, called "Playlist For the Apocalypse,” that explores both her personal health and our collective well-being.

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