Shareen K. Murayama : part one

Shareen K. Murayama is a Japanese American, Okinawan American poet and educator. Her first chapbooks, HEY GIRL, ARE YOU IN THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP? by Harbor Editions and HOUSEBREAK by Bad Betty Press will be published in 2022. She’s a 2021 Best Microfiction winner as well as a poetry reader for The Adroit Journal. Her art is published or forthcoming in Pilgrimage Press, SoFloPoJo, SWWIM, Flash Boulevard, The Willowherb, and elsewhere. You can find her on IG & Twitter @ambusypoeming.

What do you feel poetry can accomplish that other forms can’t?

I’ve heard poets say, “I worship at the altar of poetry.” Love that! But I’m not that monogamous or rather I have faith that poetry’s the lover I run to when I need to feel special, feel love. It’s not that poems hold answers, but they inquire or shift your stance to see a part of the world differently. Poetry’s also intimate, like you’re stumble into bed with pillows fluffed, you turn to your partner, or in this case, a poem or book, and ask, “So, what’s on your mind?” And then you listen.