Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child has always been with us. When I looked up its origin, there was none. One day, it stood up on his hind legs in the distance and wailed. Its origin is America itself. Its an old, traditional spiritual that traces back to slavery here in the United States. … Continue reading “BHM #8: SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE A MOTHERLESS CHILD”

Watch a staging of Cry choreographed by Alvin Ailey for Judith Jamison, dedicated to Black Women and mothers. To get through the gates of heaven, you will have to pose in a gesture that expresses your life / dig down into what was meant to stay buried and flourish Write your story with the body’s … Continue reading “BHM: #7 EKPHRASTIC RESPONSE TO ‘CRY’ / POEM FOR JUDITH JAMISON and ALVIN AILEY”

We the common and ordinary only see tall men in relation to basketball hoops. They appear useless and clumsy anywhere else. Despite suit, tie and title, a grown man would be dressed down into gym shorts or an easy punchline by passers by. Tall brothers are easily objectified. Their body a uniform. They’re stared at … Continue reading “BHM #6: BLACK ALIENS with Kevin Peter Hall and Bolaji Badejo”

There is a blue sky across the street from the end of the world a sky without center or capitol even the birds have deserted the horizon birds know better only a rocket dares reach toward the eternal without consideration of heaven. On the flipside of sky is a clean chalkboard its calculus of sticky, … Continue reading “BHM #5: AN EKPHRASTIC POEM AFTER ARTIST AMY SHERALD”

One of the choir girls in my childhood church caught the Holy Spirit during service for the first time. “It was burning,” she said surprised to be chosen and touched by hot fire stubbornly invisible and eternally curious. The Holy Spirit moves like a minister of smoke through the congregation, the church, touching people for … Continue reading “BHM #4: BOB MARLEY MANIFESTS LIGHTNING AT THE ONE LOVE FESTIVAL, 1978”

Television was infected with TV Specials in the 70’s. Any comic or singer worth a mic, who could fill a nightclub on a weekend night, would eventually be tossed an hour long TV Variety Show. Richard Pryor was becoming a huge presence on the standup circuit in the 70’s and in May 1977, two years … Continue reading “BHM #3: MAYA ANGELOU ON THE RICHARD PRYOR SPECIAL”

Consider Ola Ray / cover girl, model, Playboy centerfold, actress, monument to Black History. The God commissioned creme of her delicate and dreamy skin / a full galaxy thrives in her miracle reflecting eyes Attaché to male singers who prefer their video vixens quiet and pretty as a glass of bourbon. Black royalty once denied … Continue reading “BHM #2: OLA RAY (*WHEREIN THE WRITER REWATCHES MICHAEL JACKSON’S THRILLER BUT ONLY FOR OLA RAY)”

“He was more concerned about his mustache than his haircut. He always liked his mustache to be up off the lip, like a butterfly. He would tell me, make it like a butterfly this time.” Nelson Malden, MLK Jr.’s former barber What squad of men occupy the Rushmore mountain of mustaches in Black History? … Continue reading “BLACK HISTORY MONTH (BHM) #1 GREAT MUSTACHES OF BLACK HISTORY”

What shall we do while Gayle King is in space? Cities bombed for ‘redevelopment’. Rubble raked for bones and bread. But keep ya head up; Gayle King is in space! Jupiter needs a COACH outlet. There’s no Sephora on the Crab Nebula. America’s mall looks too small to be great, so says Gayle King from … Continue reading “GAYLE KING IS IN SPACE”

Prelude A friend calls monthly, like one would check in with a therapist. A mutual acquaintance has brought her to tears multiple nights. Who is open to just listening beyond me? Our years together, she’s earned my patience. But one night she stopped and asked about me. How was I really? What was going on … Continue reading “Year End Review: How To Do A Reading”

Christmas this year feels mournful. Not just for the obvious headlines; but the air holds incense of discomforting flavor. Writing still needs to happen, though. Right? I haven’t written in months, despite my longing and desire. Despite all the reading and thinking. I’m currently reading Toni At Random, Dana Williams’ book on Toni Morrison’s former … Continue reading “Year-End Review”

Congratulations! It’s a book!! Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive is now available from Black Lawrence Press. The bulk of poems in Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive represent attempts to finding myself as a poet, by training my eye to focus on and validate things I found beautiful or curious or odd or all of the … Continue reading “Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive – Book Reveal”

Pre-orders are now available for Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive, my third poetry collection due this June from Black Lawrence Press. These poems are memories, meditations and monologues. Stories of witness gathered during my time living in West Oakland around 2007 — before and after. Oddities and encounters formed into poems while; standing at bus … Continue reading “Pre-Order Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive”

(For a matter of months I’ve drafted an entry intended for this blog and every approach to the keyboard was met with a cleansing sigh of defeat. Maybe I’ve lost it, I thought. But in those same months, I’ve also wondered about spending the month of November writing. its funny to consider: After NaNoWriMo nearly … Continue reading “A MONTH OF MAGICAL THINKING: ENTERING ROOMS”

The first cassette recorder I ever bought was the first adult machine I’d ever owned and it felt so thrilling it made me nervous. I immediately did two things with my recorder: At once, I began collecting theme songs to tv shows and sit-coms I watched (Not that anyone cared ) and second, I snuck … Continue reading “VOICES”

I consider poetry ‘work’—reading it, representing it, writing it. Whereas my actual 9-5 means little of nothing to me. A solid exchange of my time for my rent. Thank you! I don’t always enjoy showing up for work. Some days productive, others a slog, others: eh. So I endured the day in office, even the … Continue reading “Reading In Public”

The holidays are not one of my favorite things– not that there’s been much worth reporting. Time seemed to slow to a crawl from Thanksgiving through Christmas, through today. But since the new year, my mood eased. Happy New Year One positive was sitting for an interview with Haley Radke and her lovely AdopteesOn Podcast. Truthfully, … Continue reading “The Box”

Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to revisit the 1984 film, Amadeus. I’d been anxious to rewatch it for a while and was relieved when it became available for streaming. The award-winning story (both on Broadway and in Hollywood) was about Mozart as experienced by his resentful contemporary composer-rival, Salieri. There is a sequence … Continue reading “Re: Writing (Or Which Notes Do You Think I Should Cut?)”

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 … Continue reading “The Week In Retreat”