WWPH WRITES ISSUE 75

---

---

WWPH Writes 75…To help celebrate PRIDE, this issue of WWPH Writes is dedicated to the Pride Fellows at the Arts Club of Washington: Regie Cabico, Ishanee Chanda, Hiram Larew, and Michelle Parkerson. I am also thrilled to be part of this talented group.

The Pride Poetry Residency at the Arts Club was started by local poet and historian, Kim Roberts in 2023. The program allows a safe space for the creation and appreciation of original poetry. As Roberts states, “Especially in times of regressive politics, the Arts Club believes that it is crucial to uplift and amplify LGBTQ+ voices.” This program is funded through the generosity of two individual donors: Doritt Carroll, a published poet who is the Club’s former vice president, and Harold Hardman, a Club member. They continue a long history of Arts Club members providing support for programs that highlight diversity among artists of all disciplines. 

The Pride Poets have been in residence at the Arts Club for the past six months, from January through June. The residency consists of six private workshops, five public workshops (each led by a fellow), and a Pride reading. We hope you enjoy the poems here from the five fellows and the residency founder, Kim Roberts. We would love to see you at the Pride Poets reading at the Arts Club on June 20 at 6:30 pm!  Admission is free, but registration is required. Here is the link.

Plus, we invite all to submit to our annual WWPH Pride Poetry and Prose contest. Details are below. Deadline is June 16th at 11:59 pm.

Happy Pride!

Jona Colson
co-president & poetry editor

THESE DAYS

My far away brother writes that
he thinks he’s in love with
doric columns.

He says that he trusts
their flutes and carved capitals
these days
as they reach up high.

What else is there that’s worthy
he says.

And even though he’s not my brother
he still asks me
if he should marry the firmaments —
the kind that taper skyward
for all time.

(Truth be told, I barely know him –
he’s more of a wish
or an echo.
But no matter.)

My better sibling keeps reminding me
from somewhere in the distance
that he needs life’s
marbled assurance.

So I’ll help him
whoever he is
because brothers and others
surely deserve
to learn how great-grandmothers
hold up our temples
on shoulders
by simply turning each page.

Hiram Larew’s most recent collection, Patchy Ways, was published in 2023 by CyberWit Press. As founder of Poetry X Hunger, he’s bringing a world of poets to the anti-hunger cause. www.HiramLarewPoetry.com and www.PoetryXHunger.com

---

Kim Roberts is the author of six books of poems, most recently Corona/Crown, a cross-disciplinary collaboration with photographer Robert Revere (WordTech Editions, 2023). She is currently a writer-in-residence at the Dumbarton Oaks Conservancy through Writing the Land. Roberts co-curates DC Pride Poem-a-Day each June with filmmaker Jon Gann. http://www.kimroberts.org

---

l’estate

in italy, we are two lovers in a stone villa.
we drink limoncello into the afternoon and
crush red grapes with our feet. i cut cherries
and apples and oranges onto china. you lick
balsamic vinegar off your fingers and sing
nursery rhymes to the trees. the hills hum
warm when we make love. we molt feathers
in the tuscan heat. a single stretch of summer
spent touching you, my miracle splayed on
grass sheets.

Ishanee Chanda is a prose writer and poet from Dallas, Texas. She is the author or two books of poetry titled “Oh, these walls, they crumble” and “The Overflow.” Ishanee currently resides in Washington, D.C. where she works full-time in the field of humanitarian aid and refugee response. She enjoys playing badminton in the summer, singing loudly to Taylor Swift, and spending time in Brookland with her little family.

---

…from A Rabbit In Search of a Rolex (Day Eight, 2023).

Regie Cabico is the author of A Rabbit In Search of a Rolex (Day Eight, 2023) and executive director of A Gathering of the Tribes in New York City.

---

A CERTAIN CYNTHIA

The next moment
brought you
from different circumstance
out of dreams
wet with need

We could be lovers
lifetimes
never tire of touch
wander the sweet black wilderness
of this lust
or grow familiar

You homegirl
complexity and chronic youth
open me
as only Woman
can

Michelle Parkerson is a writer, educator and award-winning filmmaker based in Washington, DC. Her work has screened at prestigious international festivals, including The Sundance Film Festival, The Berlin Film Festival, AFI Fest and BlackStar Film Festival. Michelle has served on the faculties of Northwestern University, Temple University, Howard University, and University of Delaware as well as the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs Advisory Committee.

JOIN US to celebrate the recent publication of AGUAS/WATERS by Miguel Avero and translated by Jona Colson. In July, Miguel Avero will be traveling to Washington, DC for readings at Politics & Prose (July 12 at the main store); The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore (Happy Hour on Saturday, July 13), and at the Writer’s Center (on Sunday, July 14). Please join us! More information here.

---