March (2025) Update from MEH
My monthly (?) missive on all things MEH
Random Thoughts & Writing Prompts
In the summer of 2020, Frontier Poetry published “an open letter to our white friends and supposed allies,” a poem which was subsequently the final word of said the Frog to the scorpion a few years later. While attempting to cobble together poems for a reading, I re-read it and thought, in this current moment, it has applications beyond race, racism, and racial violence. There are so many other types of violence being perpetrated right now.
So I place this poem back into the world with the admonishment to replace the racial with any/every other aspect of identity that can/does come under attack, is under attack— age, ability, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, socioeconomics, and whoever They may be coming for next—and ask what are you doing now? What will you do when the time comes?
an open letter to our white friends and supposed allies
you should know: we play a game.
all of us. we imagine the aftermath
of our official lynching—the result
of the inevitable traffic stop, the armed
wrong invasion of our residence, or merely
walking, sitting, sleeping, existing anywhere
a warrant has been issued for our skin-crime.
and so we all hope we will rate a riot.
we count the tweets and t-shirts, the virility
of our # memorials. the number of racist statues
and statutes with nooses around their stone necks.
the number of buildings and cop cars burned
in our name. in all of our names. and knowing
They will attempt to defame the days before our death—
investigate how white our skeletons—
the more competitive among us go the extra mile
to replace your cardboard with Molotov cocktails.
we have scrubbed the earth of all pictures
with do-rags or without diplomas. we consistently
choose church over the club, kale over Kools.
we pre-set our radios to the local NPR affiliate
and give to charity like others daily don clean underwear.
we keep our tox-screens and browser histories as open
and in sight as our hands, to leave no excuse.
and still, we wonder what you will say—
what you will do—when the time comes,
compared to what you are doing right now.
~ MEHPoetry Collections I’ve Recently Finished/Currently Reading
A Crown for Abba Moses: New and Selected Poems ~ Timothy E.G. Bartel
Bar of Rest ~ Sara Epstein
Ways to Beg ~ T.J. Sandella
We Be Walkin' Blackly in the Deep ~ Thomas Kneeland
Latest News and Publications
Recent Publications
My poem “Okonkwo returns to Umuofia” was on display as part of the Menino Arts Center’s exhibit Images Then Words (January 9 – February 14, 2025). It is a doubly ekphrastic poem, responding both to Sasja Lucas’ The Wrestling Match and Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart. See them both here.
My collection said the Frog to the scorpion made the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses’ (CLMP) reading list for Black History Month.
Recent Events
I was privileged to work with a bunch of talented young writers at the North Shore Young Writers' Conference at the Waring School, Beverly, MA alongside January O’Neil and D. Eric Parkison.
Eric Hyett, Linda Lamenza, and I read “love” poems at the Open Doors Center for the Arts in Weymouth, MA on Saturday, February 22nd.
Upcoming Readings and Events
For March (so far…)
Monday, March 3, 7-9:00 PM ~ Athan's Bakery in Brookline, MA.
Reading with poets Ruth Chad, Tzynia Pinchback, and Irish storyteller Aidan Parkinson.
Sunday, March 9, 1:30-3:30 PM ~ Poetry: The Art of Words Series at Plymouth Center for the Arts. Reading with Sara Letourneau.
Friday, March 14, 7:30-9:00 PM ~ Chapter and Verse Literary Reading Series at Loring Greenough House in Jamaica Plain, MA. Reading with Kevin Gallagher and Anastasia Vassos
March 16-17 ~ Visiting presenter at Seattle Pacific University MFA Residency
TBD ~ AWP Panel: Though it May Look Like Disaster: Poetic Forms to Save Your Life (Marianne Kunkel, Melissa Fite Johnson, Faisal Mohyuddin, Ashley M. Jones, Matthew E. Henry)
[More information and any updates are posted on my website]