Shared the above on my Instagram account @poetryamano on this the Day of Mourning with a note on taking care of one’s self during this time of the year. Whether it’s toxic family (here or elsewhere) or simply feeling left out of the big societal pressure that comes with national holidays, be kind to yourselves and take the time and space that is yours.
This week I’d like to give two celebratory shoutouts.
First, I’d like to celebrate Luke Hankins’ new chapbook Testament (Texas Review Press) which is now available for pre-order. I had a chance to spend time with this collection early and wrote the following statement:
“Testament shows Luke Hankins deftly at work in a ‘small glory’ of a chapbook! Whether addressing the troubled country that is America or bringing the reader into the prayer-like intimacy of resonant daily moments, Hankins’s poems here create spaces of presence and awareness that are refreshing and which reward rereading. Testament evokes its title by speaking the facts of the self in such ways that we can join Hankins in loving ‘the broken world better / that has broken me.’”
(blurb for Testament by Luke Hankins)
My second note of celebration is for the recent loss to the poetry community of Bernadette Mayer. Check out her poem “The Way to Keep Going in Antarctica” and join me in being “strong” in the way such poets and poems show us to be.
More soon, fam.
José
The Friday Influence 
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