4 of my poems published in Wild Horses: Women on Fire by ELJ Editions

I am honored to have four of my found poems published in Wild Horses: Women on Fire with so many amazing and powerful women writers in this annual print journal published by ELJ Editions to celebrate Women's History Month. I’m particularly proud of these poems, which I wrote as part of a National Poetry Month project with The Found Poetry Review in 2015. The source texts I used for most of the 30 poems in 30 days I wrote for the project were from lesser known women writers I admire.

A tremendous thanks to ELJ Editions who not only created a beautiful collection of women’s writing, but so generously nominated one of my poems for my very first Pushcart Prize nomination! Here are the first two stanzas from the poem they nominated, “We Need Language” (found in "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" by Gloria Anzaldúa):

My mouth is a motherlode.
Es una falta de respeto to talk
back to one's mother or father.
We needed a language
with which we could communicate
with ourselves, a secret language.

From kids and people
my own age I picked up Pachuco.
We don't use the word vosotros/as
or its accompanying verb form. Until
I am free to write bilingually
and to switch codes without
having to translate, while I still
have to speak English or Spanish,
when I would rather speak Spanglish,
and as long as I have to accommodate
the English speakers rather than
having them accommodate me,
my tongue will be illegitimate.

Please consider purchasing one of these beautifully printed books or request it at your local library. All will be donated to RAINN: Rape Abuse Incest National Network.

You may have noticed the incredible artwork on the cover, which is by Mandem. You can read more about their artwork and artists, as well as their Hypermobility painting series on their Tumblr page here.

The four poems and source texts included in this collection are:

• "Bruised" found in The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
• "Salvage great love at all cost" found in "Women's Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros
• “White" found in “White Bear" by Joy Harjo
• "We Need Language" found in "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" by Gloria Anzaldúa

ELJ Editions is proud to announce Wild Horses will reopen to submissions under Managing Editor Amy Strauss Friedman with Guest Editor Jessica Walsh from 4/1-4/30/17! While the website is under construction, you can find Wild Horses at www.wildhorses-womenonfire.com.

For more information on current submission calls and reading periods for all the ELJ projects, check out their Submit page here.

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