November 15, 2021

“Psalms at the Present Time displays many tools at Darryl Wellington’s command, including long, lyrical, and mesmerizing sentences, verbs that skip, leap, and scamper, and short, sharp phrases that land like percussion before lingering in the brain. Also part of his plentiful repertoire: thumbnail portraits of people, places, and things, the touch and tang of memories, and high-impact reflections rendered with a deft hand.”

—Jabari Asim, Author of Stop and Frisk: American Poems and We Can’t Breathe

“On and beyond the horizon, Wellington’s excursions into our body politic, psyche, purpose, and existence are multilayered and multifaceted. Content and craft are given equal time and focus. There is a nuanced reacquaintance with poetry’s significance in Psalms at the Present Time. This poet chooses sturdy ethos and empowering authenticity. It is a worthwhile expedition.”

—Uche Nduka, Author of Living in Public and Facing You

You can order the book now from the Left Fork/Flowstone Bookshop.org store. Here’s a direct link to the book (and here is our full storefront).

We will not disappear

like her birth name

like his dead letters

buried inside a sheaf

after a flash rain…

We will not disappear.

**

Death yawns stately.

Death conjoins us.

— whether we make music

noise, love, or bourgeoisie war.

Free assembly and funeral

rites, these days, symbiotic, interchangeable.

Siren sounds. We will not disappear

**

we proceed like marionettes

carried along on one string

crowds of selfsame mouths

our tongues chant now in unison

the pitch like a cracked accordion

then canticle is cant and cry.

—from “Days of Protest”