#longcoolhallway

[narindaism]

We must recognize injustice to create justice. Thinking about resistance, peaceful and otherwise, on this #MLKday (and every day). . this has always been a hostile country though its veils of freedom and democracy allowed me queerness it took, as the price, my history it beats at my loved ones this country built upon white entitlement on stolen land a country built on genocide and war this county has always been a hostile country ... we must keep ourselves ready for battle at every front • • • #poetry #wocvoices #qwoc #qwocart #makemend2016 #chapbook #longcoolhallway #racism

[narindaism]

"persist" from my latest chapbook. to artists, activists, lovers.

•

don't get discouraged too soon

a few years into a lifelong journey is far too early to decide you are unable to travel the path

and anyway you know

you cannot live, could not walk, any other way

•

#poetry #art #longcoolhallway #makemend2016 #poem #chapbook #qwocart #woc #writing

[narindaism]

i wish hearts and laws were as easy to change as clay that persistent hands could help press them into the shapes necessary to hold nourishment, warmth, to be beautiful, imperfect strange and i know that clay is not really so easy that even clay takes force and fire to change and even then there is no telling whether the result will be anything like what we might expect . . . i’ve turned to clay for comfort in these times when words do not feel like enough when my hands feel so desperately unable to change this world in the ways it needs to change at least i can make these small things that people can drink from, eat from, grow plants in, and remember that though we cannot always make the world as we wish it to be we can believe in the fire and make an offering.

[narindaism]

[narindaism]

A poem from my latest chapbook, what is precious (2014).

Excerpt:

sometimes we find ourselves in love

while we are each standing on separate tectonic plates

which insist on continuing

to drift apart

[narindaism]

My 2014 chapbook, what is precious, is available on a sliding scale: $5.00 / $7.00 / $10.00 / $15.00  This latest collection feels like a culmination of my process over the previous three chapbooks. Tracing Steps (2010) was centered around family and my Khmer American identity, of cities and lovers (2012) was a "farewell, what ride it's been, see you soon" to Los Angeles, and earth things (2013) was an exploration of the relationships humans have with one another and with the natural world. 

what is precious (2014) takes each of those themes for a whirl. I'm happy about the synthesis, both in this collection and in my life.  I'm hoping to get 2015's chapbook done in the summer rather than in the last days of the year. Wish me luck. 

[narindaism]

Rough live recordings of poems I read at Tuesday Night Cafe on April 15, 2014. Courtesy of the kind Vicky Luu.

Have a great TNC tonight, Los Angeles. 

[narindaism]

#NationalPoetryMonth #throwbackthursday poem from #longcoolhallway, 2008