#omnidawn

[uwmspeccoll]

National Poetry Month: Craig Santos Perez

Craig Santos Perez (b. 1980) is a Chamorro writer; born in Guam, his family moved to California when he was fifteen. The poems highlighted here are from his 2017 collection from Unincorporated Territory [lukao] published in Oakland by Omnidawn. This is the fourth title in his continuing unincorporated territory series and continues Santos Perez's exploration of Chamorro language, culture, diaspora, as well as the legacy of the U.S. Military bases on Guam. In 2023, the fifth book in the series, [åmot], won the National Book Award for Poetry.

[lukao] – procession – weaves poems centering his wife and the birth of their daughter with, “other processions, including extinction, military buildups, environmental degradation, climate change, violence, and death.” Santos Perez revisits motifs from the first three volumes of the series – including the legends of juan malo, and an endless, ecstatic consideration of SPAM:

My food philosophy / is simple: I eat therefore I SPAM. The name itself stands for: / Specially Processed Army Meal, Sacred Pork And Medicine, / Super Pink Artificial Meat, Snake Pigeon And Mongoose, or / Some Pigs Are Missing.

Santos Perez layers humor, lyricism, personal narrative, social-media-speak, history, myth, Chomorro language, maps, and rhythm to illuminate a complex and rich heritage of Guam, while providing a frank assessment of colonization and militarization.  

Watch Santos Perez perform SPAM's Carbon Footprint at a festival in 2016.

See other National Poetry Month posts!

--Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[bostonpoetryslam]

In stories we kept reading, wandering was a punishment, and we were instructed to pity the immigrant, the foreigner, the stranger. But what if the absence of a point of reference is not something to be lamented but a structural foundation on which to build a house we fill with water?

Jennifer S. Cheng, “Dear Mao,” from House A

[omnidawn]

Another exciting announcement from Sarah Gridley !!

Sarah’s poem “The Depletions,” was chosen by Meena Alexander for the 2018 Cecil Hemley award, Poetry Society of America. A big honor & a hearty congratulations to Sarah !

Here is an excerpt we love from the poem:

Read the full poem here: https://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/awards/annual/winners/2018/award_4/

[andrewseguin]

Pleased to have a poem in Taras Malkovych’s Ukrainian Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry— he worked for over a year on the translations and production.

[bostonpoetryslam]

No one told me how to mark the gaps between us, how to compensate for them in the first place.                     No one told me that if I left, there would always                     be a reason to return.

Jennifer S. Cheng, “How to Build an American Home,” from House A

[bostonpoetryslam]

to chart a shadow is to draw a body closer to its longing.

Jennifer S. Cheng, “House A; Geometry B,”  from House A

[bostonpoetryslam]

Whereas sound opens up the space behind us, which we cannot see. Whereas sound is the distance between two ghosts, the effect of two surfaces rubbing against each other.                      What, then, is the sound I make to say, here?

Jennifer S. Cheng, “How to Build an American Home,” from House A

[bostonpoetryslam]

If sleep were a language, it would not sound like nothing but would instead materialize both longing and distance, history and myth.

Jennifer S. Cheng, “Dear Mao,” from House A