Getting Through

from How It Happens, (Black Lawrence Press, 2018)

Artist Gustavo Nazareno at Unbound, MoAD SF

I think this is an appropriate time for me to share an audio recording of my poem “Getting Through” from my poetry collection How It Happens (Black Lawrence Press, 2018). I’ve had to change some of the wording because the events mentioned in the poem occurred 60 years ago or more and not 50 years ago as was true when the poem was first written. Some of the events I have observed during my lifetime have changed, but only in their outer packaging. The impact of those events permeates deeply and reveals fault lines that have persisted for decades.