Touching Grass

a new poem, Sealey Challenge, & other trans and/or literary wonderfulness

Aug 25, 2023

How it is almost September is beyond me. But honestly, I am very much over this record-breaking summer heat.1

An admittedly shorter list of trans and/or literary links for you:

New issue of beestung is out! This dreamy mag publishes work by nonbinary writers. As always, I’m a fan of sterling-elizabeth arcadia’s work.
Consider signing this open letter from Undocupoets to the Pulitzer Prize committee urging them to change citizenship requirements.
Applications for the next Roots. Wounds. Words. virtual retreat are open! I cannot recommend this experience and community of people enough. My life changed that week.
Abode Press
is open for submissions! Send your poetry, prose, & hybrid chapbooks! Fee waivers are available for queer/trans writers of color.

I also want to share some exciting things I have going on:

Speaking of Abode, I’m teaching a workshop on September 6th. Join me for Writing Queer and Trans Joy. Writers of all levels and genres are welcome. You can register and find the full description here.
I’m reading at one of my favorite bookstores October 12th! The event is hybrid, so you can join us at BookWoman in Austin or online. Registration and more info here.
I got my first Best of the Net nomination!! From a press I love!! Here’s the nominated poem, “Origen.”

We are still going strong in the Sealey Challenge. Truly a historic achievement for me. You can find my week 1 and week 2 rundown in the archive.

Here are the highlights from week 3, August 15th through 21st:

Gemini Gospel by Bianca Alyssa Pérez - this book is so so beautiful. I met Bianca right before my dad passed away. And then unfortunately her father passed, too. I’d already read these poems, but they felt like a hug from a dear friend. This book is for the Geminis, the Latinas tired of apologizing for being Latina, the lovers, the lovers, the lovers.
Cruel Fiction by Wendy Trevino - I’d been meaning to read this for a while. I’m not sure I’ve read a poetry collection that so closely comes from the same political perspective as me. Trevino interrogates race, Latinidad, borders, and other, as the poem says, cruel fictions. I also really enjoyed the sharp analysis of pop culture.
Space Struck by Paige Lewis - this one was a reread and, like the other rereads, my partner’s choice.2 I was so thrilled for them to read it!! According to my annotation in the book, the first time I read it was four days after my dad died. This book delighted and distracted me, and helped me think about how the world is bigger than me. The world is bigger than me, it’s wondrous, and it’s beautiful sometimes. Rereading after three years was such a treat. It’s also so very clear how big of an influence Lewis is on my own writing style.
Trans [re]incarnation by E. Kerr - this collection has been on my TBR for months, literally. I really enjoyed reading it! I was especially drawn in by the erasures and the trans lens put on religion. If you can’t tell, that’s an area I’m especially interested in right now.
Peluda by Melissa Lozada-Oliva - another reread! Though my partner has listened to me read a few of the poems from this chapbook throughout our relationship. I’m just as obsessed with these poems as I was in 2021, underlining the shit out of every poem. I can’t wait to read Candelaria soon.

I think I’m in my therapy era. It’s not the most fun time in my life (nor the least). I feel like my brain is tired, nearly all the time. But it’s also… fine? I was trying to Roman-Roy-pre-grieve my way out of my feelings, which just made my grief worse, angrier, bigger. A month ago I wrote a poem outside right after therapy. I didn’t let myself censor anything I felt about or to for once. Then I spent some time thinking it was terrible, as one does. Now I actually am a fan of it and you all have to suffer the consequences of that revelation.

Touch Grass Dad, thank you for break- ing the poetry dam. Nothing else moves me enough to write again. But it’s been three years, and you are still dead. I’d say that I’m out here facing the 105° heat for some fresh air. I’m not. In therapy an hour ago, the Cymbalta-fortified tear dam also broke. We ended the session making guttural noises and deciding that I needed to touch a tree in the backyard. Unable to touch or be touched, I came out here to smoke. Dozens of tiny white snail shells covered the ground. I do not know if they are alive. I do not want to ash on them, make my human problems theirs. What I really wanted to do was to talk to you, Dad. Did you forget, as I did, that this whole thing started because of you? I don’t know if the snails can handle the heat. I can’t handle the heartbreak of following my curiosity down into a rabbit hole. I can withstand the heat, but I shouldn’t. I want to touch my cactus, but I won’t. Capitalism and colonialism trick us into thinking we can and should withstand grief alone. We can’t. I can’t. This is me asking for help. This is me hoping this grief ends. — It turns out there were no snails in the shells!!! Thank goodness!!!!

And what the Sealey Challenge has shown me is that poetry is something so vital to me as a person. I love loving, creating, talking about art and writing. What else do we turn to to combat capitalism? Art y la comunidad, siempre.

Thank you for reading this far down! I am three away from a milestone number of subscribers, which is weird and amazing! I promise trans poetica will never get bought by rainbow capitalists and sell your… gender data?3

Not even my poem could escape the sun

We created a very cute routine of reading together and swapping books every other day

if you know…

trans poetica

Touching Grass

a new poem, Sealey Challenge, & other trans and/or literary wonderfulness

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