Kiki Petrosino
Whenever I write about Mr. Jefferson, he gallops
over. Knock knock, he begins in quadruplicate. It's
pretty wild, like my student's poem about a house
of skin & hair, a house that bleeds. Mr. Jefferson's
place is so dear to me, white husk my heart beats
through, until I can't write more. In my student's
poem, the house stands for womanhood, pain coiled
in the drywall. Sorrow warps the planks, pulling nails
from ribs. In Kentucky, I'm the only black teacher
some of my students have ever met, & that pulls me
somewhere. I think of Mr. Jefferson sending his field
slaves to the ground, a phrase for how he made them pull
tobacco & hominy from the earth, but also for how
he made of the earth an oubliette. At sixteen, they went
to the ground if Mr. Jefferson thought they couldn't learn
to make nails or spin. He forgot about them until they
grew into cash, or more land. For him, it must've seemed
like spinning. Sorrow of souls, forced to the ground
as a way of marking off a plot. At sixteen, I couldn't
describe the route to my own home, couldn't pilot
a vehicle, could hardly tell the hour on an analog
clock. I had to wear my house-key on a red loop
around my neck. Now, I rush to class beneath a bronze
Confederate, his dark obelisk, his silent mustache. My books
tumble past the lectern as I recite Mr. Jefferson's litany: Swan.
Loon. Nuthatch. Kingfisher. Electric web of names, yet
in the ground, I know, a deeper weave of gone-away ones
who should mean more to me than any book. I live in language
on land they left. I have no language to describe this.
from the book WHITE BLOOD: A LYRIC OF VIRGINIA / Sarabande Books
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"Dan Beachy-Quick: Why I Translated This"

"If one could draw the vectors of force of translating as I’ve learned to translate, it might look like this: a drawing near, a walking close, and the quick living fix of the other’s gaze, and then a walking backward, eyes to other eyes’ brightness locked, hoping what I see, and what sees me, follows."
 
via NEW ENGLAND REVIEW
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Resources for Supporting and Uplifting the Black Community

Black Mamas Matter Alliance: "Black Mamas Matter Alliance is a Black women-led cross-sectoral alliance. We center Black mamas to advocate, drive research, build power, and shift culture for Black maternal health, rights, and justice."

Center for Black Equity: "The Center for Black Equity is the National leader in connecting members of the Black LGBTQ+ community with information and resources to educate, engage and empower their fight for equity and access."

The Marsha P. Johnson Institute: "The Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MPJI) protects and defends the human rights of BLACK transgender people. We do this by organizing, advocating, creating an intentional community to heal, developing transformative leadership, and promoting our collective power."
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What Sparks Poetry:
Michael Collier on Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish"

"Early in my encounter with poetry 'The Fish' taught me that description has the ability to consecrate and even transubstantiate what’s being looked at, especially if it’s an object or thing, like a fish. In Bishop’s poem, the moment of consecration takes place as the speaker considers his eyes and notices among other things how 'They shifted a little, but not/ to return my stare.'"
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