And I’m sharing this tender, personal moment with you the day after ICE agents murdered a mother in her car in Minneapolis. This is how we live now – how we have lived for so long. Moments of profound joy smeared against cruel acts of violence. How do we make it through?
First by not abandoning the joy. All week I’ve been working on sending this message to you, but early this morning I had my doubts. Why care about a poetry book in times like these? I remind myself – have been reminded by many – that it’s always times like these somewhere, for someone. Which is not to diminish them unto the mundane. Rather, my anger grows. All of deserve to live in a world that is more just than this one, and that world, a more humane world, is so much closer than we’ve been led to believe.
So I’m keeping that faith, remembering the dialectic, and sending you this message despite – because of – it all. Fighting for joy with anger, all at once, even as
I’m holding the book in my hands
after seven years of dreaming, seven years of pushing myself to dig deeper than I wanted to or thought I could. This is the most personal work I’ve ever written. And the courage required to write it now transforms into the courage needed to share it with you. RECKON begins shipping later this month, can I sign a copy and send it to you before the official release date?
