where our paths meet.

a place for poetry written by people of color.

[poetrybypoc]

- Mother's Mother by Khari Dawson

[poetrybypoc]

- from Autobiography of My Hungers | Eduardo C. Corral

[byronicist]

“what humiliated me / as I relived my death in that room without sunrise / wasn’t my desire for light / but my desire for more darkness.”

Paul Tran, from All The Flowers Kneeling (2022)

[quotelr]

“What keeps my heart awake is colorful silence.”

— Claude Monet

[typewriter-worries]

acknowledgments, Danez Smith

[ Text ID: and how many times have you loved me without my asking? / how often have i loved a thing because you loved it? / including me. ] 

[poetrybypoc]

When I think of America, my body aches / for something more protective than skin.

- from "Oh Say Can You See" by Viktoria Valenzuela

[poetrybypoc]

oh god, i praise this touch—

untranslatable,

which is how i know it's holy.

"Ojalá: I Hate Heartbreak" from Promises of Gold | José Olivarez

[poetrybypoc]

"Cal City Winter" from Promises of Gold | José Olivarez

[poetrybypoc]

as long as i am a fact to you, death can do with me what she wants

- Danez Smith, from "acknowledgements"

[poetrybypoc]

you are the universe made flesh

- from Of Dark Love: XII // Francisco X. Alarcón (tr. Francisco Aragón)

[poetrybypoc]

And suddenly, with a slight tremor of eyes, vertebrae and fingers, I destroy everything that exists.

- from Grafik // Juan Felipe Herrera

[poetrybypoc]

They knew / they were born to weep / and keep the morticians employed / as long as they pledge allegiance / to the flag that wants them destroyed

- from Puerto Rican Obituary // Pedro Pietri

[poetrybypoc]

- from Puerto Rican Obituary // Pedro Pietri

[poetrybypoc]

- from I Was Told the Sunlight Was a Cure // Hanif Abdurraqib

[poetrybypoc]

What is it, to remember nothing, of what one loved? To have forgotten the faces one first kissed?

- from First Light // Chen Chen

[poetrybypoc]

Midnight is closing in / isn’t it funny / how only the darkness / is a thing that people say closes in / I come from a state / where there is grass everywhere / it grows out of the walls / it grows out of our hands / it spills from our mouths / any time we speak / I mean to say / that I am actually the garden you are looking for / I mean to say / that I have awaken in the brunch hours / and refused to eat / I am a man of boundaries / there is an hour for pancakes / there is an hour for pizza / in between / there is only hunger / and now we return / to the animal / my friend had an iguana / that would rest on his stomach as he slept / every night / for the sake of warmth / but never for the sake of love / I have had my face pulled away from this closing darkness / and into the light of a computer screen / once again / but this is also not love / I do not confuse necessity for love / I do not confuse hunger / with the need to fill myself / with anything that will have me

- from Poems From An Email Exchange // Hanif Abdurraqib

[poetrybypoc]

Have you chosen to haunt me by haunting the universe?

- from Because your footprints // Usha Akella