lliterary magazines
Wax Nine Journal published two of my poems last year - "Token" and "Liner Notes to the Soundtrack of My Ego Trip" - and I wanted to give them a mention and express my appreciation for their publication. I think Wax Nine is a literary gem and the variety of work published there is worth checking out. But of course…check out my poem first, please. :)
My poem Live on the Sunset Strip appears in issue 1.2 of Mythium, the journal for contemporary literature and the diasporic and indigenous cultural voices of writers of color.
Mythium is the brainchild of award-winning author & educator, Crystal E. Wilkinson and visual artist/poet, upfromsumdirt (Ronald Davis). I appreciate the chance to contribute to this issue, which also includes work by skilled wordsmiths such as Nikky Finney, Ruth Ellen Kocher, and countless others. It is a great read, from cover to cover. (If you get a chance, check out the cover of this issue of Mythium by clicking here – hands down the coolest cover concept I’ve seen out of a literary journal in long time.)
On a personal note, seeing this poem published makes me extremely happy. Live on the Sunset Strip is a tribute to the late Richard Pryor – those who are fans of his humor know the title matches the title of one of Pryor’s stand-up concert movies. I wrote the first draft of this poem shortly after his passing in 2005, and that draft was epically horrible – crap formed out of good intention and fandom, but too wordy and clumsy to be a sustainable piece of literature. I’ve tinkered with this poem off and on for years and finally got it to the point that I felt comfortable enough to have other human beings read it. And those people were the staff at Mythium, who thought enough of it to publish this work. I am so happy to have something penned out of pure emotion and admiration come to life on the page.
So fellow writers keep your heads up – sometimes it takes longer than expected, like five years…or more…but when you get to the destination and arrive at the precipice of your unblemished creative vision , there is no sweeter feeling.
Be good.