Fatherhood, Fathers & Fathering

by: Sam Rivas, Contributor & Guest Author

Decanon Project features poems on Fathers, Fathering, and Fatherhood. Each poem demonstrates the complexities of masculinity and how it can either be rigid or softened in the role as a father. As someone who has my own complicated yet beautiful relationship with my father, I found the poem “Coniferous Fathers” by Michael Kleber-Diggsss to be relatable. Anytime I get a chance to see my father or any father fall out of the toxic masculinity cycle, I feel comforted by their letting go so they can love us softly. Happy Father’s Day to all of the newly loving fathers out there!

“As a Father of Daughters” by Hannah Aizenman

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Worldly Things by Michael Kleber-Diggsss

Poem: “Coniferous Fathers”

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Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong

Poem: “To My Father/ My Future Son”

Celebrating the LGBTQ community

by: Sam Rivas, Contributor & Guest Author

@decanonproject features books by LGBTQ Writers of Color which bring intersectional communities together.

Happy Pride Month!

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Ocean Vuong, Night Sky with Exit Wounds

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Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House : A Memoir

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Natalie Diaz, Postcolonial Love Song

#pridemonth #lgbtqwriters #lgbtqcommunity #lgbtqpoets #creativewriting

AAPI HERITAGE month: Poetry

by: Sam Rivas, Contributor & Guest Author

De-canon project continues to celebrate AAPI writers’ poetry & art!

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Engine Empire poems By Cathy Park Hong

“Though once I was so decent from such humble backgrounds

my ma bit her arm to feed us brothers three.

Am I cursed? I drink the myrrh her life who forced me alive.

History intones catch up, catch up while a number rots, then another.” —-“Seed Seller's Sonnet” (61)

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The Cowherd’s Son poems by Rajiv MoHabir

“Why throw your bangles

in the river at all? Melt the gold

into a charm to keep you safe.

Henna is darkest before dawn

as mud that clings to the palm.

This is not a story of watermarks

or river lines. Your gold nose ring

has fallen amongst the reeds,

surely bringing shame to your family

should your in-laws tell your father.

What use is remorse when the leaf

will stain you in red anyway?

Tie your sari to your love's fabric.

Today everything you touch

turns to beauty.”—-“Henna” (71)

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Thousand Star Hotel poems By Bao Phi

“Did we light garlands of fire onto your sacred mountains,

push your people to tiny fingers of dry land,

explore what was already found,

then name your beautiful landmarks

after ourselves” ——“No Question” (54)

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Look by Solmaz Sharif poems

“a newlywed securing her updo

with grenade pins

a wall cleared of nails

for the ghosts to walk through”

——“Vulnerability Study” (44)

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Saina & Hacha by Craig Santos Perez

“i imagine it rains

to say home-

in different versions each view

becomes a migration

each 'arrival?

becomes "a fossil of skin'—“

—“ginen preterrain” from Saina (81)

“"the monitors tried to trick you and ask you something in

chamoru" he says

"and you got punished

if you didn't answer them in english'

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he explains how to minimize your shadow

depending on the angle of the sun”

—“from ta(la)ya” (37) from Hacha

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Echolalia in Script: A Collection of Asemic Writing by Sam Roxas-Chua

“At night, my god is a red swan,”(49)

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Hey, Marfa poems by Jeffrey Yang & paintings and drawings by Rackstraw Downes

(116) poem, “The Prisoner”

(58-59) drawings

Intersectional Feminism through the words of AAPI writers

by: Sam Rivas, Contributor & Guest Author

Asian American Pacific Islander writers whose books have conversations with one another on the theme of intersectional feminism and womanhood.

A Bestiary by Lily Hoang

“To prove our renowned endurance of pain, Vietnamese women

adorn their wrists with jade bracelets. In order to get the damn thing

on, one must distort the hand, almost breaking it. I have yellow

bruises for days, and yet: this is proof of our delicacy: how well we

take that agony and internalize it. The tighter the fit, the more suf-

fering the woman can persevere, the more beautiful she is considered.”—“on the RAT RACE” (18)

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Mosquito & Ant by Kimiko Hahn poems

“I realize now

how lithe I was when I thought

I was the ugly daughter--how

tremulous my beauty. I didn't know”

—“Wax Initial Correspondence to L…” (17)

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If They Come for Us by Fatimah Asghar

“you're a daughter until they

bury your mother, until you're not invited to your father's funeral.

you're a virgin until you get too drunk. you're muslim until you're not

a virgin. you're pakistani until they start throwing acid. you're muslim

until it's too dangerous. you're safe until you're alone. you're american

until the towers fall, until there's a border on your back.” — “Partition” (9)

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Over Pour by Jane Wong

“A river only rises

in rain. A river only courses in one

direction. I don't know if this is true.

My father points to a store across the street and I walk toward it

with purpose. In a storm, the sky has purpose.

To glance below and say: what for? The land,

the animals, the people sitting in front of a television,

alone. This is the definition of sacrifice.

What is all this leaving good for? To return a face

we keep for keeping's sake? My mother laughs into a bowl of soup

or blows on it because it is too hot. The purpose of a spool of thread

is to calculate distance. My mother left home in 1982.

The hem of her wedding dress is 7,326 miles and what for

More cactus flower in your mouth”

—- “Encyclopedia Vol.” (55)

AsIan American Pacific Islander Books published by PNW Presses

by: Sam Rivas, Contributor & Guest Author

De-canon celebrates Asian American Pacific Islander writers, zooming in on Pacific Northwest published poetry. These collections share elements of identity—history, grief, and family.

Portuguese by Brandon Shimoda @brandon_shimoda (Octopus Books& Tin House Books) @octopusbookspoetry

“Every child I see I say to myself / is that how my child will look? I look/ For parents to extrapolate against, see only/ Myself on the opposite shore” (8, The Grave on the Wall)

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Proof of Stake an Elegy by Charles Valle @checking4charles (Fonograf) @fonografeditions

“I want to invent a new plasticity of language, / Of movement, of motions, of grief / And strike these words to widen the aperture / To blur the background, all that baggage/ In buttery bokeh, unrecognizable/Dark, more dark “ (59)

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Picasso’s Tears Poems 1978-2013 by Wong May (Octopus Books) @octopusbookspoetry

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Poem titled, “DARK TIMES: LU HSÜN (1881-1936)” by Wong May, page 29 (Wave Books)

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A Thousand Times you Lose your Treasure by Hoa Nguyen @hn2626 (Wave books)

Poem titled, “Tones in Vietnamese Language”

Photo: Hoa Nguyen’s mother was part of an all women motorcycle stunt group from Vinh Long. This is a photo of one of the women in the group.

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Photo collage in Hardly War by Don Mee Choi, “Hardly Opera” pg 54-55 (Wave Books)

Photo of drawing and poem in DMZ Colony by Don Mee Choi, “Orphan Nine” pg 71

Motherhood, Mothering, and Mothers

by: Sam Rivas, Contributor & Guest Author

De-canon contemplates the complexities of things we might think about on Mother’s Day, highlighting a few books by women writers of color on motherhood, mothering, mothers, and inheritance. Below are my favorite glimpses of The Breaks by Julietta Singh, Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History by Camille T. Dungy, and Bring Down the Little Birds by Carmen Giménez Smith.

Being a daughter to a mother who is 843 miles away, has reminded me of my newborn self—calling every hour and crying to be fed words of reassurance. I am pregnant for the first time and each of these books feels like a Bible designed to understand mothers. They are gems of wisdom holding space in a world that typically focuses on the ugly of motherhood.

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"Mothering at the end of the world is an infinite toggle between wanting to make you feel safe and needing you to know that the earth and its inhabitants are facing a catastrophic crisis."— The Breaks, Julietta Singh

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"…[T]he size of a mother’s brain changes during pregnancy and the early stages of motherhood… Because of my changing brain, I understand things differently… I am, I believe now, more prepared to be accepting of the humanity in all of us. The biggest difference between the smiting God of the Old Testament and the forgiving God of the New, I’d argue, is that the New Testament God went and had a baby." —- Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History, Camille T. Dungy

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“Mother is heavy matter, lead. Weighed down with my son in my arms, groceries, a diaper bag, the baby inside me. I am bound to this earth by downward momentum.” —Bring Down the Little Birds, Carmen Giménez Smith