"Mark 10:14" in Issue 4 of Pensive Journal
I am pleased that my poem “Mark 10:14” is appearing in the fourth issue of Pensive Journal (out of Northeastern University). Read the full issue online here. I dabbled with form this time and I think it worked out.
P.S. if you’re a Facebook friend and recognize yourself in this poem, oh well.
“when asked how to avoid being seen as racist” at Identity Theory
I am happy to have my strange little sonnet “when asked how to avoid being seen as racist” published in Identity Theory .
I think sex with animals is problematic. I think racism is problematic. These two facts are at the root of this poem (which is based on a joke I was once told).
And if you thought this poem involves any drunk children having sex with goats, you should sue your elementary school, you’ll need the money to make up for your poor reading comprehension skills.
Also read the companion poem “when asked what I learned during the ‘community forum’ on the appropriateness of my poem” out from Bending Genres.
Two Poems at Fahmidan Journal
Proud to have these two poems—“when my colleagues hear our employer confused me with the only other black teacher in the district” and “practice makes perfect”— in issue 11 of Fahmidan Journal.
“Out of my Hands” at Zone 3
Two of my kids suffered a tragedy that changed my life. I wrote a horrible poem and a couple of songs about it that never saw the light of day.
Over a decade later, while teaching a memoir unit, I wrote a longer work about it— the first piece of prose I had written since high school. Over the next few years it saw many revisions, many suggested revisions from journal editors, many night thinking.
It’s a story I read every year in my classes. I think I’ve not cried when reading it once.
I am proud to have “Out of my Hands” appearing within the pages of Zone 3.
"the reckoning" in The Florida Review Online
A wonderful colleague recommended Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings. I loved it, but took (slight) issue with one of her statements and wrote a poem about it.
The Florida Review has taken a chance on my work once again, and just published it online.
Two poems reprinted in Teaching Black
I am proud to have two poems—“an open letter to the school resource officer who almost shot me in my class” & “the surprising thing”— reprinted in Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching On Black Life and Literature from University of Pittsburgh Press.
Both poems can also be found in Teaching While Black .
“a final assay” in The Florida Review
This was a hard poem to write. Almost impossible to read out loud. But I'm happy it found a home in The Florida Review.
Two poems in Discretionary Love
Some times people ask me why I don't write love poems. I tell them all my poems are love poems, but I know what they mean. So I show them ones like these two just published in Discretionary Love and they stop asking.
sweetness
before she began, she placed the glass jar between us—
filled with fresh, golden honey—and a sizable spoon.
homemade. an amateur apiarist, she kept a ready supply.
as she began, I remembered how my mother mixed
honey with lemon, a pinch of salt. a folk remedy
for sore throats, the beginnings of a cold.
when she was through, I asked why. she thought
I meant the amber on the table, not the gaslighting
she called brutal honesty. she said it was to help me
swallow my feelings.
an open letter to the one who should have got away
…yet, somehow—
as the scorpion thrashed her pincers
and drowned—the frog survived,
flopped ashore, croaked himself
back to life. a week, a month later,
along the same muddy shore,
another barb-tailed arachnid
implored him for safe passage
across the stream. a ride
atop his slick, perforated back.
it’s not that he doesn’t remember.
it’s just his nature. he never learns.
Say Grace is a Twinkie or a cockroach in Poetry East
I’m please to be, once again, published in Poetry East.
Two poems in Wizards in Space
I'm pleased to have two poems in Issue 7 of Wizards in Space.
A love poem, “on parables” (originally published in Autofocus),
and
a school poem “when asked why I don't volunteer.”
“just in case” in 3Elements Literary Review
My trippy little (modern) sonnet “just in case” has found a home with 3Elements Literary Review.
Featured Interview with The Main Street Rag
Recently I had the honor of being interview by Shawn Pavey for The Main Street Rag about my first chapbook Teaching While Black, but also writing, education, creative, inspiration, race, and a host of other topics. The questions were thoughtful and timely and, as always, I tried not to bring shame on my family while answering.
An introduction to the interview by the Publisher/Managing Editor of The Main Street Rag, M. Scott Douglass:
Featured Interview
I need to give a shout out to Main Street Rag co-founder, Shawn Pavey for his wonderful interview with Matthew E. Henry and one to Matthew as well for his part in making it one of the best interviews Main Street Rag has ever published.
If that’s not enough to get you to turn the page and dive in, let me tell you two things about Teaching While Black by Mr.(Dr.) Henry. First, we knew the day it arrived for consideration that we wanted to publish it. It was a unanimous decision among all readers who just happened to read it at the same time (the wonders of Submittable). Second, as the interview will illustrate, when I read this as a manuscript, I was in the classroom. I was there. The scene was vibrant; the characters alive.
If you have not read Teaching While Black and this interview doesn’t inspire you to want to read this book, your poetic and social soul may well be lost.
