May (2025) Update from MEH
My monthly (?) missive on all things MEH
Random Thoughts & Writing Prompts
Last week I was a part of an online panel discussing poetry and the divine. It was organized and led by Frances Klein, and included Jared Beloff and Meghan McDermott. It was a wonderful reading and conversation, wherein a question about poetry as a spiritual act was raised. I said something pretending at profundity at the time. Here is a better answer by way of example.
Three weeks ago, I was dealing with deaths within my community. I was attempting to put the grief into words and was failing, miserably. Two weeks ago, I was a guest reader in the Meg and Greg Show during The Nossrat Yassini Poetry Festival at UNH. As I looked over the schedule to see which events I would attend, I saw a workshop was being led by Maya Williams, an amazing poet and online friend I had never actually met in person. Obviously I would attend Maya’s. And then I looked at the title: “Where Does Your Greif Sit?” [string of expletives deleted because my parents read this].
I got there late, but I went. And I sat and listened. And I stoically (and poorly) stifled tears with my head slightly tilted back (because that’s how you keep the tears in). And then we were given three prompts to respond to. I can’t remember the second, but I was struck by the first and third: “Write about where in your body you are holding your grief” & “Write directly addressing your grief.” I combined both into one prompt—a conversation with the Grief radiating beneath my sternum— and began writing, immediately finding the words for the feelings I failed to express for a week.
Catharsis is spiritual.
So yes, poetry can be a spiritual practice.
Poetry Collections I’ve Recently Finished/Currently Reading
6 Lineage Poems ~ Fernando Trujillo
Judas & Suicide ~ Maya Williams
Latest News and Publications
Recent Publications
I am currently working on (and shopping around) a full-length of ekphrastic poems. Three of the poems therein have recently found a home:
"Job confronts Maggie Smith at a conference" (based on the poem '“Good Bones” by Maggie Smith) was published in Presence 2025,
“if Havah had a daughter” (based on William-Adolphe Bouguereauex's painting Temptation and the biblical book of Genesis) was published in Mom Egg Review, and
“So Bound is Creation by the Cry of Trumpets” (based on the art of the same name by James Dye) was published in Stone Circle Review.
I also have new recent poetry and prose acceptances from DREGINALD, In Short: A Journal of Flash Nonfiction, Pangyrus, The Prose Poem, Rituals, Tidings, and a few others.
Recent Events
I was privilege with appearing on the My Bad Poetry Podcast once again, this time discussing the ekphrastic works that were cut from my manuscript in progress.
As mentioned above, I had the honor of reading alongside Crystal Valentine, Dorothea Lasky, Ricky Orng, Bianca Stone, Maeve Flusser, M.P. Carver, Meghan Miraglia and Gregory Glenn for the The Meg and Greg Show during the 2025 Nossrat Yassini Poetry Festival at the university of New Hampshire, as well as an online reading and discussion on the divine in poetry with Frances Klein, Megan McDermott, and Jared Beloff.
Upcoming Readings and Events
For May (so far…)
Wednesday, May 7, 7:00 PM 8:00 PM~ Thursday Poets Reading Series
I’ll be reading alongside Michelle Richardson (AKA Michelle de la Poetica) at The Galleries at Lynn Arts (GALA).
Saturday, May 17, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM ~ Solstice Launch Party Reading I will be joining Jabari Adsim and Alexis Rizzuto at Newtonville Books to celebrate and launch the latest issue launch of Solstice Literary Magazine.
Saturday, May 31 - MassPoetry Festival Panels
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM ~ Goin’ Up Yonder: Religion in Black Poetics
For many in the Black American community, religion played a large role in our upbringing. Whether we maintain our beliefs into adulthood, embrace a new faith, or abandon religion altogether, we may reckon with or otherwise allude to how that cultural context informed our lives through poetry. Four writers will read poems that include imagery, diction, and other aspects of religion. Then they will discuss among themselves and with the audience how these influences appear in and drive their work.
Presenters: Quintin Collins, Sarah Kersey, Porsha Olayiwola, and Matthew E. Henry
4:30 - 5:30 PM ~ The Night Office: Embracing the Creative Power of Darkness
How does darkness influence our art, our prayer, our perspective? Given the explosion of artificial light over the past 150 years, how do we navigate the loss of darkness and what—exactly—are we losing? In this panel, we’ll explore ways to enrich our creative practices through mindful engagement with darkness, literal and metaphorical. We’ll also explore the profound effects artificial light has on the natural world, and our accompanying grief. We hope to converse across theology, ecology, poetry and non-fiction, touching on such topics as winter solstice, via negativa, midnight prayer (‘the night office’), and the importance of the night sky.
Presenters: Hannah Larrabee, Nina MacLaughlin, Carolyn Oliver, and Matthew E. Henry
[More information and any updates are posted on my website]