Thursday, May 26, 2016

Poems For Donors

Kojo
You gave me green hope
at one a.m. before I 
slept to dream of day.

Ann Denise
Under my pillow
I keep golden incense: they
are prayers for you.

Cecilia 
You shared until you
broke your thumb in process.
No sister like you.

Emmanuel 
There are places on
earth reserved for people
who set wings to dreams.

Betty 
Nine years of friendship
means burning your dreams
to set fire to mine.

Ibrahim
Memories of time
teaches love, trust, and pain
forgiveness, always.

Marsha
Your words have moved me
to trust my hands and eyes
from ninth grade to now

Jordan
Poetry are drops
of rain falling over 
dawn--a bee asleep. 

It's Been Over A Month

It always takes a rejection letter for me to write another post. Ahh, sad isn't it. I was working on my camera and new lighting equipments when I got an email that my chapbook had been rejected.  I turned off the camera immediately and began to think about terrible thing: "You are not good enough, how will you survive? How will you make money? Why did you choose to become a poet?"
As you can guess, this contest meant a lot to me. But it is not the end of my career. Actually, there are so many more good things coming my way that I cannot even stop to think another negative thought.

A few weeks ago, I started a go-fund-me campaign for my acceptance to VONA. It was such a bold and exciting decision for me. Meanwhile, I had also applied to a conference in Minnesota to study with Jericho Brown and had been accepted two weeks before I got my acceptance to VONA. The only problem was, these two would be in the same week and I had to pick on or the other. I eventually chose the workshop with Jericho Brown, a painful decision as I couldn't defer my acceptance to VONA and will have to reapply next year. Only the favor of God can get me in again and if that's all that matters then I am not bothered.

For everyone who gave me a single dollar to go to VONA I would like to express my sincerest gratitude. I will be attending three conferences (Minnesota Northwoods, Poem Works, Southampton Writers Conference) in total this year and will actually use some of these funds for those. I thought I owed you all that explanation at least. So this summer,
I will be in Boston, Minnesota and then back to  Southampton. I will open the go-fund-me campaign until the end of the year. I am looking for some miracle and more conferences.

I did promise to write each and everyone who gave me a poem. I decided to write a haiku. Hope you all enjoy.

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