Ash, a post for Trayvon Martin

Friday was a blog-in for 17 year old Trayvon Martin, shot and killed by his neighborhood watch captain. I'm late to the party because I've struggled to find words.  For years. For too many boys. This time the name is Trayvon. Trayvon was returning from the local convenience store to his father's gated community with [...]

Monthly Meter: February 2012

fellowship/publication submissions: 10 fellowship/publication acceptances: 1 fellowship/publication rejections: 1 books: 3 Teeth Aracelis Girmay Blood Dazzler Patricia Smith Like Trees, Walking Ravi Howard Secret Shame: Running nightmares.  Seriously.  I have them.  Why can't I be faster with killer abs?  Because I like white chocolate chips, ice cream, and sleep--the latter of which I cannot seem [...]

Monthly Meter: January 2012

It's ba-yack!  The Monthly Meter returns this year.  It might be better named my accountability log; my Dar-get-on-the-stick statistics.  Because that's really what all these numbers and records are about.  Follow me on the journey.  Or walk beside me.  Well, run with me--I'm picking up the pace!  Come back every month to see how goes [...]

Under the Radar stays under the radar: 2011 in Review

The WordPress.com helper monkeys prepared an annual report for Under the Radar and here's what they discovered: The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 14,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that [...]

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Culture Jacking

I don't know about this.  So I read this article about the history of  "African" fabrics and am still thinking (insert Scooby Doo voice here), Huh? Dutch you say?  The same Dutch that colonized South Africa? Critics of the side-eye I'm giving to "the "true original" Vlisco will likely argue that the Dutch's  main stomping [...]

21 Things I Wish I Could Tell My TwentySomething Self

I make lists.  It's what I do. I also take unsmiling pictures of myself.  Shoot me. I write a lot more journal-y stuff than poetry.  But trust me: I'm a poet. I have the binders.  A degree.  The tortured soul to prove it. But back to this thing about lists. I often think of young [...]

On Guilt

I read this today. A couple of weeks ago this traveled with me on a few morning runs. And I thought about how I was feeling not many weeks ago about this. Bad thoughts ran through my head all three times for which I felt guilty--are you *bleeping* serious?!  I can think of no curse [...]

The Last Supper

THE LAST SUPPER, 21 SEPTEMBER 2011 appears in  Tidal Basin Review Spring 2012 (pages 40-41) Read or download full issue HERE. THE LAST SUPPER, 21 SEPTEMBER 2011 I. Some days I’m wishing for a date to come and some days I’m not wishing for a date.  Now that it’s here, I’m willing to accept it, you know. [...]

You’re gonna have to stop all this running and exercising…and start eating some meat.

Daddy, I love you, but dude, Kojak?  Turned up to deaf? Ahh those were the days.  Unemployed and back with the folks after 18 years, I was not the happiest camper at camp.  So I chased a few highs (and a few job leads).  First Oreos, then some retail therapy, and then something I’d discovered [...]

Conversations that happen in my head v.1

"I think inspiration is given too much credit. It can only do so much—never any of the heavy lifting that’s required when crafting a poem. Inspiration is a lazy architect who gives you a blueprint with only the front door drawn, then snoozes on a hammock while you build the entire house."            (David Hernandez) Aww [...]