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_refugee_  ·  3316 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 13th Quote-a-rama Thread's Dead Baby, Thread's Dead

Danez Smith is an up-and-coming young(ish) Black poet who simply fuggin' rocks my world right now - you might enjoy this, which is amazing: Alternate Names for Black Boys. VERY IMPORTANT TIP: read it slowly.

For what it's worth I find this poem very reminiscent of 13 Ways of Looking At a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens who I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to take as a personal inspiration because he was a businessman/poet - founded and/or ran MetLife Insurance even after becoming a successful writer, IIRC.

Also, do note his bio - he always ends it with "Danez thinks you look good today, so smile!" Aw man, it's not on the Poetry magazine bio. Oh well. Take my word for it. Sometimes he adds on "Twerk on" or a similar variant. I love his attitude. I follow him on Twitter. What amazes me is that he applied to MFA programs this year and recently tweeted about how he was worried about getting in. If fuckin Danez Smith is worried about getting into MFA programs, shmucks like me are doomed - but I say that more as "OMG this person is so insanely talented, he should be accepted anywhere!" than "woe is me." He's just brilliant.

There's honestly a lot of really, really great racial poetry going on right now. I was thinking about doing a blog post on it. I don't know about video game poetry or poetry about hip hop so I'm not sure about what might appeal to your other interests but I've read some really, really gripping poetry about race and interracial relations.