Poetry Cover Art

The latest issue of Cordite Poetry Review, featuring my concrete poetry cover illustration, Freethemetry is now online. You can check it out here.

the way whitney died

in the interest of integrity
i gotta say
i just never ever really dug
the kinda music whitney houston made
i always thought she wz a white girl
the whole time she wz on the radio
& when i finally saw her
on video hits / she kinda seemed to be
behaving like one / anyway
another broken black one of us / who
who wz born / lived / & died
for their godforsaken stage
bt for all that they loved her
the way whitney died / i mean
shit / she might just as well
have been billie holiday

young, gifted & black

sixteen months old
with a lion’s roar
& right hook
that knocks her
six year old brother flat

the baby packs a whole new meaning
into young / gifted
& black

A Writer's Work is Never Done

U.S. based poetry magazine Prairie Schooner have just released their Work issue. It's a collaboration with Cordite Poetry Review, and contains my poem Plantation Rumours. If you missed listening to it online at Cordite, you can now catch it here. As part of the Work issue, Cordite's editor David Prater asked me to describe my average day at 'work', which features next to my audio poem. I'm hesitant to post the reality of writer-me here, because it's a little uh...shall we say unslamupish...in part because I was feeling particularly overworked when I wrote it. But here it is...Ahh, what a leisurely bohemian life it is I lead:

get up / undress baby / feed baby / dress baby /get boy up / feed boy / get boy back up / get boy to bath / get boy back up / bribe boy to dress / get boy back up / pack boy’s lunch / help boy find bag / help boy pack bag / find boy’s hat / dress self / eat cold toast
nice family time
something smells
change baby / walk boy to school / pick up rattle / keep walking / pick up bottle / keep walking / pick up hat / keep walking / pick up baby
boy is late
experience bad-mother-guilt
laugh
dismiss bad-mother-guilt