January 27, 2021

White Male Poets Society

“White male poets must be shaking in their boots,”

I’ve seen it recently written

“at the onslaught of us, the non-white, non-male poets.”

“And they’d better be, for we are storming the bastions!”

funny, my boots are perfectly still

though white

and male

and poet

(yet not in any bastion)

I welcome the new voices

have read, and loved

Emily Dickinson

Mary Oliver

Rudy Francisco (YES!!!)

Rupi Kaur (at times)

Amanda Gorman

Atticus (at other times)

and still my boots are still

do not quiver at all

and I wonder

perhaps these speaking

presuppose a different truth

than that which I and many know

where the tower is not locked or barred

there is no tower at all

is merely folks like you and I

we, who with silent pen and desk

pour from our hearts to other’s eyes