Metta Sáma : coda

What are you working on?

For about seven years now I’ve been working on a collection of poems, anecdotes, original folklore, mythology, sermons and a short play titled the year we turned dragon, which, of course, began in the year of the dragon. The titular poem was written as a reflection on living in one of the larger slaveholding states (Louisiana) that also saw one of the largest rebellions organized by enslaved persons. I began to see the establishment of the U.S. as a commune with decidedly colonial histories. The poems and prose in this collection are written, primarily, in a third-person we-narrative in order to illustrate the ways in which leaders of communes often worked to eradicate people of their individual identities in favor of a shared ideology and way of being. This we-narrative also provided me with an opportunity to re-think gender constructions and to challenge readers to re-think gender constructions. While the majority of communes in the United States were, in fact, led by White men, the United Society of of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing (the Shakers) stands out as an enjoined gender commune that, one could argue, deeply believed in a dual gender or transgender God. It’s a long process to write this book, as entering into the we-voice requires a particular silence. Last year, I began constructing individual I-voiced poems, to provide the Leader with a backstory. Part of the book was published by Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs in 2016. I hope to have it completed by 2020.