Being a dangerous poet
I recently discovered that my poem collection, Yellow Doors, is offered on a Europe-based online shop, Metropolis/The Store, that says it stocks innovative jazz & "dangerous poetry." I love having my work included in that category--it challenges me to make sure that my poems really ARE dangerous, unsettling me & calling me to change my life.
This summer I wrote a poem, "Braids," about the Afro-Colombian community I accompanied in 2003 and 2004, and now I'm getting ready to go back & revise it. It's rather beautiful but not yet dangerous. In the poem some women of the community are braiding their daughters' hair, & each other's, which seems quite sedate & innocuous. Braiding someone's hair is definitely a bonding activity, & thus an act of solidarity in suffering/struggle, but I want to jar the reader by picturing it from the start as an act of resistance. So I'm going to go back & "unbraid" the poem's neatness a bit, put in some spikes & dreads.
Sadly, the grandchild I had been expecting with great joy (see prior post) slipped away from us while still in the womb. Parents, sister, aunt, grandparents--we're all very sad about this loss. Loving is always dangerous.
This summer I wrote a poem, "Braids," about the Afro-Colombian community I accompanied in 2003 and 2004, and now I'm getting ready to go back & revise it. It's rather beautiful but not yet dangerous. In the poem some women of the community are braiding their daughters' hair, & each other's, which seems quite sedate & innocuous. Braiding someone's hair is definitely a bonding activity, & thus an act of solidarity in suffering/struggle, but I want to jar the reader by picturing it from the start as an act of resistance. So I'm going to go back & "unbraid" the poem's neatness a bit, put in some spikes & dreads.
Sadly, the grandchild I had been expecting with great joy (see prior post) slipped away from us while still in the womb. Parents, sister, aunt, grandparents--we're all very sad about this loss. Loving is always dangerous.
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Ben, thanks for your kind words--& for pointing me to that song; I wasn't familiar with it. Really haunting.Your prayers are much appreciated.
I'm a recent fan of your poetry.... very sad to hear the news. We have been through similar loss recently and now it feel as if it is in the lives of everyone around us... the "bone-grinding mill" lyric from "18 Bullet Holes" by Waterdeep keep running through my head. We pray for healing for your family. -Ben