Poet and friend Maw Shein Win asked me to compose a process note for her students regarding writing poems for my book, MARTIAN: The Saint of Loneliness. That essay published this morning. Despite a few false starts, I thought it came out nicely.
Read it here.
And since I’m doing a quick check in today, I’m very grateful for getting some poems recently published in Alta Journal that you should definitely check out. Its a gorgeous publication and I was honored to attend a gathering of writers in that journal, despite me ghosting the room almost immediately after the reading was over.
Just wanted to check in to share it with you. Hope you’re well!
PS:
Once upon a time, every Black History Month I’d post an essay on my blog on someone I admired. Though I’m not planning a full series of essays this year, figured since I’m here I’d at least give a quick shout out to one of my poetry ancestors, Henry Dumas. Born in 1934 and killed by police action in 1968, the year I was born, Dumas was admired by Toni Morrison and his work has been preserved made fresh again by the tireless efforts of another great poet, Eugene Redmond. I’d heard about Dumas for years until I finally scored a copy of his collected work, Knees of a Natural Man.
Check out Henry Dumas’ poetry from the Poetry Foundation website.
Here’s a sample of Eugene Redmond’s work.
The Dirty Rat 