Exile, Poet and Writer Claribel Alegria

Salvadoran poet Claribel Alegria. She has lived in exile for many years. She now lives in Nicaragua. Her best-known book is titled Flowers From the Volcano.

Thomas Blanton, of the National Security Archive, a group that declassifies government documents, using the Freedom of Information Act. Recently, they accessed documents indicating that the Reagan administration was aware of human rights abuses in El Salvador in the 1980s. During that time, the administration was required to report to Congress about conditions in El Salvador, with the understanding that if the Salvadorian military did not improve it's human rights record, the U.S. would no longer send aid.

"Poetry holds the knowledge that we are alive and that we know we're going to die," poet Marie Howe tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. One of Howe's most famous poems, "What the Living Do," was recently included in The Penguin Anthology of 20th-Century American Poetry.