Sunday morning, I went to the DeYoung Museum to visit the Kehinde Wiley exhibit. I had to agree with my Lyft driver and said: "Its not a decision a lot of people would make. Going to a museum first thing on a Sunday." She agreed, but we were both wrong. The gallery of Kehinde's work, …
Continue reading "Art Exploration or Archeologies with Kehinde Wiley and Amalisa Mesa-Bains"
Thanks to my book, the Academy of American Poets gifted me a solid week writing retreat at the historic and gorgeous Betsy Hotel on Miami Beach, Florida. I haven't had any kind of vacation or relief from my weekly patterns since the pandemic and more than anything looked forward to getting out of my life …
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, …
Continue reading "New Process Note and a Toast To Black History"
Halloween (1978), Dir. John Carpenter I have been watching reaction videos of young movie fans. Watching something I know almost verbatim over the shoulder of a millennial is awkward and wonderful and weird all the same. Its also a surprise that many of the films I grew up on 30, 40 years ago still work, …
MARTIAN: The Saint Of Loneliness on sale NOW! Am thrilled to announce my second book, MARTIAN The Saint of Loneliness is on sale now. If my first book acts as an introduction into who I am, this book represents what I do as a poet. The book has won the 2021 James Laughlin Award from …
Roxie Theater marquee, circa 1981 Its now been just over three years since I've entered a movie theater. I never would have predicted such a thing. Never in my life would I have predicted or assumed theaters could go out of business or be replaced by screens carried in one's pocket. Never in my life …
Those Poems You Liked Are Coming Back Into Style Cover Art by Wangechi Mutu I've waited HELLA LONG to announce the birth of my new forthcoming collection, MARTIAN: The Saint of Loneliness which drops September 27. And here is the cover reveal, provided by artist Wangechi Mutu! Pre-orders for the book are going on right …
Continue reading "PRE-ORDER MARTIAN: THE SAINT OF LONELINESS"
Saturday morning—and by morning I mean two am-- My apartment shuddered from what sounded like the roar of a fleet of helicopters landing. My bed idled and vibrated. A full line of cars trafficked up the street, loud guttural ululations from Mustang after Mustang, some with volcanic radios, some from passenger voices rapping in chorus. …
I'm bored. I wrote a poem the other day! but dislike posting brand new poems since I'm supposed to submit them to journals and stuff... If I can ever get it together and follow through. So instead, here is a older poem that I have long loved, but will never read again publicly or publish …
Continue reading "The Blonde & The Bad Luck Monkey (A Poem As Time Machine)"
"The painter, Cezanne, would leave blank spaces on his canvas when he couldn’t account for the brush strokes, or the color”--- “How much of your life can you account for? My life is a collage of unaccounted for brush strokes; I am all random”.”― John Guare, Six Degrees of Separation An unoccupied bench in an …
The Dirty Rat 