Voices from the Sea is a collection of verse written in recent years by poets who live and work in Shanghai. Shanghai is a young, open-minded and vibrant city, where the meeting of east and west has long intrigued the world. The works in this anthology portray both the exterior and interior landscapes of contemporary Shanghai. In the past three decades, Shanghai has undergone a vast transformation, which has been carefully studied by its poets. Their work alternately voices surprise, confusion, lamentation and aspiration, as well as expectations for the future. Their lines delineate a diversity of scenes and people peculiar to Shanghai and paint a picture of a city that is brimming with life. The poems collected here thus provide a reflection of the zeitgeist, a monitor of the heartbeat of a city.