I am overjoyed to share that my poem in Spanish, “Ode to Guayaquil,” appears in the August 2018 edition of The Acentos Review! There is a great line up of poets in this issue that I am grateful to be counted among – including Alexandra Gulden, Monica Garcia, and ire’ne lara silva!
You can read the entire issue here: The Acentos Review
And I have a new bio pic!
Thanks to the Baltimore Review for publishing my poem, Rules of Engagement in their Winter 2018 online issue! It will also appear in print in their annual magazine. I hope you take a minute to visit their site and read it! I am overjoyed that it has found a home.
In October 2016 I heard Claudia Rankine read from her book Citizen at the Dodge Poetry Festival in Newark, NJ. This poem is the offspring of that experience—her work put me in touch with the feeling of helpless rage that I had long ago buried. I had to bring these experiences out of the silence of forget, and give myself the voice I was never allowed to have.
That’s me reading my fresh poem in my blue motorcycle jacket at the Hear Me Roar Open Mic at the Asbury Hotel, Asbury Park, NJ. October 23, 2016.
The night I wrote the poem, the last night of the 2016 Dodge Poetry Festival, I went to the Asbury Hotel in Asbury Park to write. There just *happened* to be an open mike night there that night. I was writing furiously in my notebook my thoughts from the weekend, and the poem literally wrote itself into my notebook as a journal entry.
When I realized that people were getting up and reading poems – I looked at what I wrote and thought maybe I could put it into verses and do a sort of spoken word poem— i’d never done that before, but it had an undeniable rythym to it…
It took a lot of guts to ask the emcee for permission to read it, and then actually get up in a room full of strangers and read it. The beautiful Susan Rosenberg came over while I was there, and witnessed this whole thing happen. And she took a photo of me reading the very, very rough first draft of this poem. It was a huge turning point for me. I’d never written or even talked about this stuff ever before, let alone write a poem on the spot and read it to a room full of strangers.
My poem, Año Viejo, was published in the Fall 2017 issue of the Naugatuck River Review.
Año Viejo was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Spread over 8 weeks in the months of Sept. and Oct., the O, Miami “Write and Publish Your Own Chapbook” workshop explored the chapbook in all it’s forms, gave participants a chance to generate poetry with thoughtful prompts and readings, and time together to workshop poems in preparation for publication.
Literally, the moment I found out about the O, Miami Chapbook Workshop, I signed up. I have been thinking about publishing a chapbook for a long time now. I have several groups of poems that I have already written, and ideas for poems that I could write, to potentially include in several different chapbooks. This workshop helped me dedicate time and commit to making one chapbook a reality. That in itself was priceless.
Our instructor, Caroline Cabrera, did an outstanding job of leading us down a path to learning and understanding what our chapbooks could be- one major facet of our workshop was that by the end of the 8 weeks we were going to have a 12-page chapbook, printed and bound, all of our very own.
The workshop gave us the opportunity to not just generate new work, but also workshop our poems with the other poets in the group. We each workshopped three poems, one every other week. Discussions were lead by Caroline, who was an excellent moderator and helped guide us as we discussed each poem. Thankfully, we really gelled as a group and learned a lot from each other. All of this unleashed a wave of creativity and inspiration that I think we all felt – every night after class I got back home and wanted to write and read poetry all night long, my brain firing in all kinds of creative directions.
Another excellent aspect of the workshop was the ability to focus on one idea or theme in our poetry, and begin to carry that through to a finished product. Beginning with the first week of the workshop, Caroline brought her personal collection of chapbooks to share with us by lending them out. Seeing how different poets approach this medium is fascinating and liberating. A chapbook is a world unto itself- a journey into the mind of each poet. I wish I had more time to read more of them 🙂 But my takeaway was that I could envision my chapbook as it’s own little world, and that has translated into a laser-like focus that I am still learning from.
There truly is nothing like holding a book of your own words in your hands. Our finished products were designed by Phil, Caroline’s husband, who took great care and creativity in laying out the covers and pages. It’s one thing to run copies of your own poetry off of your printer, but it’s a totally different experience to see them laid out, looking book-professional and official. Thank you, Phil!
We each produced 10 copies of our finished product. Since our chapbooks are part of a series for our class, we decided to call it the Category Six Chapbook Series (thanks to Hurricane Irma which hit during the second week of class). They are similar in cover design, but we were encouraged to embellish them in any way we want to. From seeing Caroline’s collection of chapbooks, I knew that I wanted a little color and some more tactile elements, so I included some end papers and a ribbon bookmark in mine. In several of my poems I use the phrase green-gold, so my end papers are gold vellum, and my ribbon bookmark is thin green satin. I think they look beautiful!
All of the participants also received the PDF file of their chapbook so they can print up more copies if they wanted to. Some of the poets in the workshop are selling their chapbooks. I gave away 8 copies of my chapbook and kept 2 for my family. I am not going to print any additional copies, mainly because I already have worked some more on those poems and am submitting them to literary magazines and poetry contests.
This workshop was one of the best experiences in my entire life. It jump-started my chapbook, which eventually is going to grow into a book-length collection of poems. I now have a manuscript that I am going to work on over the summer at the Bread Loaf Environmental Writer’s Conference in Ripton, Vermont. My goal is not only to expand the collection, but also to use that manuscript to apply to MFA programs for Fall 2019.
Thank you O, Miami!!!
Creek Lover – my 12 page chapbook of plein air ecstatic poetry.
This night is
a fuzzy, fleshy peach
which I aim to take a bite of
just knowing that
it won’t be long
before I am covered
in sticky, sweet juice
dripping from my fingers
running down my arms.
This night is
a sultry dream
a far-away jazz tune
brought by a wayward breeze
an offering laid at my feet
a promise I intend to keep.
This night
is ripe.
ACROSS
Leaping-
free fall, airborne
suspended
reckless, open innovation
that mysterious thing
opening and closing.
Scenes, lying there
waiting, not explaining.
…
An insatiable fascination
with language,
selfless reverence
to make it come alive,
my palm
against her palm.
Sunday morning, June 4, 2017 was the first official day of the Bread Loaf Translators Conference in Ripton, VT. Our very first craft lecture was by Idra Novey, and this poem is a cento from her lecture. Idra is a poet, novelist, and translator from the Spanish and Portuguese. Her lecture was a perfect beginning to the conference, because she encapsulated exactly what it feels like to be a translator, with humor, insight, and heart. Thank you, Idra! On a side note, she is also super cool and fun to hang out with, and I wish I got to hang out with her more 🙂
Come, thief
whispering to fool the wind
invitation to a secret feast
power & possibility.
The unfolding center,
divine nothingness,
domain of perfect affection
If one of us should fall
faster than light
don’t let me be lonely.
I spent a lot of time browsing the pop-up poetry bookstore at the Dodge Poetry Festival, both yesterday and today. One of my favorite things is to read and collect the titles of poetry books, and then try to assemble them into a poem. I walked around with my notebook and jotted down the titles that sounded interesting to me. This poem is the product of that exercise.
My sincere thank you and apology to those poets whose book titles I skimmed with my little net.
She said:
Hello, compadre
You have taught and changed me,
or should I say,
you have made me see something else
in myself.
This poem was written 45 years ago by my father, Al Eyde. It was found on a type-written page among my mother’s old photos and papers. He wrote poems to her while they were apart for a few months, one cold winter in 1970.
My parents met in Guayaquil, Ecuador where my mother was a senior at the Catholic University. My father was a professor of English at the university, and my mother was his student. They knew each other for a about a year before they began dating, and were married in 1970. My dad flew back to the US and a few months later my mother joined him.
My father passed away 8 years ago, on Sept. 12th. Every year I try to remember him in different ways. I had never read any of his poetry or even knew that he had written any, so this year’s memorial is seeing him in a new light.
Truly, this: My thoughts
of you won’t leave the worn paths
carved within my heart
Our eyes, our mouths, locked
invisible caresses
skin to skin, linger
I meant everything
my silent lips have said
and more. Yes, there is more.
Bar Harbor, Maine
Sometimes there is no clear path. There are many things I want to express, but at the same time I have to question myself: to what end?
Mincing words almost always leads me to haiku. This is a series of three haikus. Together they are but a scratch along the surface of everything I keep inside.
The last haiku is 5-7-5, but for aesthetic purposes I dropped the 7th syllable of the second line down to the last line. So, instead of a haiku, its a my-ku 😉
I cut my teeth
on the excuses made
for lack of performance
I cut my tongue
on the words
I never took the chance to say
crystallized thoughts
fiberglass shards of words
difficult, even though
all I want to tell you is
always, forever, and again
your pain is my pain
your joy is my joy
my abounding enthusiasm
quivers in your hands
your hands
your hands
your hands
She has received institutional support from Bread Loaf Writers Conferences, the Kentucky Women Writers Conference, New York State Summer Writing Institute, and was a Vermont Studio Center Fellow in 2022. Lupita translates poetry from Spanish and is currently translating Venezuelan poet Oriette D'Angelo. She loves visiting the beach with her chidlren, volleyball, word games, black and white film photography, road trips, and trains.
Not Enough Poetry 