School

“memo from the principal of Antonin Scalia High School, Charity, Ok RE: amended Course of Study for the 2024-2025 academic year,” in The New Verse News 

I don’t flex my academic accomplishments, but it’s relevant to understand where this poem comes from.

  • BA in English and Secondary Education (double major), with a minor in Philosophy

  • Master of Fine Arts in Poetry

  • Master of Theological Studies in Hebrew Bible and Theology and the Arts

  • PhD in Educational Leadership, dissertation focused on the history of how the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment are/aren’t taught to pre-service teachers and apply to public school settings

That said, I how could I not write a poem about the biblical nonsense happening in Oklahoma right now?

“memo from the principal of Antonin Scalia High School, Charity, Ok RE: amended Course of Study for the 2024-2025 academic year”  was just published in The New Verse News.

Be sure to check the footnotes at the bottom of the poem…

"the Blue Envelope Program" published in The New Verse News

I don’t watch or read the news as much as I should. Probably because this is my mind goes when I do. That said, my poem “the Blue Envelope Program” was just published by The New Verse News

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A five minute reading for Black History Month, Valentine’s Day, and my new collection

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In honor of Black History Month, Valentine’s Day, and the publication of my new collection, here is a five minute reading from said the Frog to the scorpion and one other poem.

Poems read in the video (the first four appear in said the Frog to the scorpion):

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Two poems in Vita Poetica Journal

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I am working on a series of poems I am calling midrash qatan, or “a little story/exposition.” They are expositions, retellings, and reimagings of stories from the Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament. The name pays homage to Rabbinic genre of Midrash Rabbah  (“a great midrash”).

Two of these poems have just been published in Vita Poetica Journal:

“found” (a midrash qatan on Luke 15)

and

“subtlety: an assay” (a midrash qatan on Genesis 3)

Both pages include an audio recording of me reading these poems.

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Two 'Letters to America' in Terrain.org

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Demien DineYazhi’s My Ancestors Will Not Let Me Forget This, 2020. Letterpress Print

Terrain.org has published both "when asked what might finally lead me to drink or abuse schedule 1 narcotics" & "white History Month" as a part of their Letter to America series.

Both are accompanied by a “dramatic reading.” Click below to read/listen.

"American Civics: 2056" published in River Heron Review

My poem “American Civics: 2056” was published in River Heron Review’s Poems, For Now issue.

This is an erasure poem from American Civics: A Text Book for High Schools, Normal Schools, and Academies (1906), employing the only mentions of Blacks (“Negroes” or “slaves”) in the whole textbook.

It’s pretty much what you would think and has implications for our collective future.

Two Poems in Cultural Daily

Thanks to Bunkong Tuon for supporting my work with his students at Union College ) and for turning me on to Cultural Daily, which just published two of my poems.

Click to Read “when asked to read a poem for the Black History Month assembly”—which was actually written for a Black History Month assembly— and “thank you, systemic racism”

 

Also check out “an open letter to the white boy from queens who sang the n-word in a song” by Denesha Lafontant, also at Cultural Daily, which pays homage to my poems. #flattered

"Inscrutable": creative nonfiction in Redivider

I am honored that “Inscrutable,” a story I wrote for/about my AAPI students in response to the Atlanta Spa Shootings, was published by Redivider as their inagural Cultural Critique piece.
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Redivider 20.1 | Cover art — Tea Queen by Aaron Norfolk

He knows the myth, but he is the model minority. The all-around A-student: attentive, astute, Asian. He’s good at math and science, but also garners excellent grades and respect in my sophomore honors English class. He’s soft spoken, but thoughtful. So as the others call out, he raises his hand and waits patiently. When I acknowledge that he will be next, he lowers it back to his desk, places the other over a delicate wrist. When he does speak, on an average Wednesday, I will swear in front of a class for the first time in twenty years of teaching.

"when asked what I learned during the ‘community forum’ on the appropriateness of my poem" in Bending Genres.

My poem "when asked what I learned during the ‘community forum’ on the appropriateness of my poem" has been published in Issue 30 of Bending Genres.

It’s not a typical poem. It’s a bingo board: I was trying something new.

Note: You may wish to read “when asked how to avoid being seen as racist” for context.

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“when asked how to avoid being seen as racist” at Identity Theory

Two school poems in Pangyrus Literary Magazine

Two new school poems—

“what i learned during Black History Month” by billy, age 8 (or 18)"

and

"an open letter to the student who will be convicted of rape in the next 3-5 years”—

are now live up at Pangyrus Literary Magazine. Give them a read.

This publication also provides short blurbs from me on the origins of both poems.

“an open letter from the boy i was to the Man you have become” published in Shenandoah

People should write more about their guilt and shame. Of course I’m talking to myself. This is something I should do and did. I didn’t always suck in middle school, I wasn’t that kid, except on this day.

It’s strange to say I am “glad” to have this poem published. But I am happy that “an open letter from the boy i was to the Man you have become” has been published by Shenandoah and will appear in the Colored page.

Can never fully make amends, but I did, repeatedly, in high school and after. But the stench still sticks.

“Out of my Hands” at Zone 3

Two of my kids suffered a tragedy that changed my life. I wrote a horrible poem and a couple of songs about it that never saw the light of day.

Over a decade later, while teaching a memoir unit, I wrote a longer work about it— the first piece of prose I had written since high school. Over the next few years it saw many revisions, many suggested revisions from journal editors, many night thinking.

It’s a story I read every year in my classes. I think I’ve not cried when reading it once.

I am proud to have “Out of my Hands” appearing within the pages of Zone 3.