“What the Godmothers Told of Origins,” “Learning to Fish: Live Bait,” and “On Death in the Land of COVID-19” by Melanie Perish appeared in Issue 35 and can be found here.
We’d love to hear more about this set.
“Learning to Fish: Live Bait” was the first in a series of poems I wrote when I moved from the Upper West Side of New York to Panguitch, UT. Fishing was the way in which I was able to understand my urban past and my rural present. “What the Godmothers Told of Origins” is one of several poems where the godmothers talk. This is a collective voice that is indebted to a global community of women who understand that to colonize people of color, women, and those of us who are non-binary is akin to the colonization of Nature. I’m grateful to all who insist that I look at what my place in this world. “Death in the Land of COVID 19” is after Caesar Vallejo’s poem “Black Stone Lying on White Stone.” It reflects the subject and form of the Vallejo poem. During the early days of the pandemic, there was much death, pain, and fear. The Vallejo poem offered me a structure to cope with it.
What was the most difficult part of writing this set?
The most difficult part of writing each of these poems is the most remarkable part of writing each of these poems: to begin in fear and ignorance and end in discovery and revelation. Discovery in my poems is indebted to a community of poets who workshop each other’s poems.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
Post Colonial Love Poem, Natalie Diaz
Counting Descent, Clint Smith
Of Bone, Of Ash, Of Ordinary Saints: A Nevada Gospel, Gailmarie Pahmeier
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
Natasha Tretheway because her poetry always speaks to my concerns. Her use of language shows immense attention to detail and her work with poetic forms confirms for me the continued importance of them. The way in which she evidences “The personal is the political” is remarkable.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
I’m working on a chapbook of poems called After and a third collection that’s without a title. After is a collection written “after” poems by other poets. My next collection is still a mystery to me. I’ve done three collaborations with Collateral & Co., a local dance troupe. They have commissioned a poem of mine on a particular topic. Two poems were live performances. A third was filmed. I hope to do more collaborations with this troupe and others.
Our thanks to Melanie for taking the time to answer a few questions and share these poems. Read “What the Godmothers Told of Origins,” “Learning to Fish: Live Bait,” and “On Death in the Land of COVID-19” here: https://www.sequestrum.org/three-poems-by-melanie-perish.
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Melanie Perish’s poems have appeared in Sinister Wisdom, Calyx, Willawaw Journal, Brushfire, Desertwood (University of Nevada Press, 1991), Emerging Poets (Z-Publishing, 2018,2019), di-vêrsé-city (AIPF, 2017-2019), in addition to Passions & Gratitudes (Black Rock Press,2011), a collection of her poetry. Sometimes crabby/always grateful, she is a member of Poets & Writers, Inc. Poetry, friendship, and social justice are the organizing principles of her life. She cannot imagine living anywhere except in the grace of the high desert.