Hello friends!

Happy Tuesday. Today I kept my youngest home from school because I thought we had a doctor’s appointment, and then I realized I’d written the date wrong and that appointment is tomorrow, so we ran home, grabbed the backpack, and filled out the official tardy slip as I accepted, with a few jokes, that my brain is in many places lately. How’s your week been!?

Today’s podcast episode is a short snippet, a little over 3 minutes long. It’s about why I insert poetry into my books, plus a reading of a new poem from Living Resistance!

Please take a few moments to listen, or read the whole thing in the text below.

And mark your calendars for a month from today, March 7th! I can’t wait for you to hold Living Resistance in your hands or listen to my voice reading to you on Audible. I hope that in my words and stories you find a home, a safe place, a curious spot to ask some questions for your own life and to know you’re not alone on the journey.

And now, onto today’s podcast episode:

Hi everyone, thank you so much for joining me here at the Liminality Journal.

My book, Living Resistance, is coming out a month from today, March 7th!

And I wanted to talk a little bit on today’s episode about the poetry I use in my books.

I have never published a full poetry book, but poetry has always meant a lot to me.

I’ve been writing poetry since I was young.

The best way to incorporate poetry into my books is to slide them into different sections and chapters. I kind of believe that poems can add a breath, help us take a pause, to stop a moment and consider what we are reading, thinking, and processing.

A lot my books center around difficult topics, that can be triggering or overwhelming, like colonization, white supremacy, oppression, and hate.

My work as a storyteller is to leave space for readers, and for myself, to stop and pause.

My first book, Glory Happening, is a series of essays and prayers, and the prayers are very much written as poems.

My second book, Native, is full of poems. I inserted them into chapters, beginning of sections of the book, as a space to just pause.

In my new book, Living Resistance, there are poems, again, at the beginnings of the sections of the book, strewn throughout.

And today, I want to read you one of these poems.

This poem is from Part 2 of the book, The Communal Realm, which you’ll read about in the book. I’m going to read you the poem at the beginning of this section:

Maybe you don’t know strength

Thank you, again, for all your support along the way. Make sure you pre-order your copy of Living Resistance, and stay tuned for more news and sneak peeks in the coming weeks!