I need more folks to consciously accept that aiding and abetting genocide with our money and arms made safeguarding democracy exceedingly more difficult than it already is.

You know, this makes me realize I can’t recall the last time I heard any of these so-called leaders refer to themselves as “public servants”

Tomorrow night at The New School in NYC. Come join us!

Oh wow, a powerful man being held to account for breaking the law. Wild concept. Imagine we adopted that here in this country.

I lack trust and confidence in anyone who says “fascism” here and now in the US, but couldn’t say “genocide” then and there about Gaza, or can’t say it now.

If you want to kill the truth, you kill the truth tellers. That’s what they’ve been doing, are doing, will do. With our weapons and approval.

This is correct and it's why public opinion doesn't actually do anything on its own. It has to be mobilized. You have to DO politics.

You don’t get spared just because you don’t pay attention to it. In fact, inattention is how you guarantee it.

Hope is on the menu in New York City

I'm elated to share the cover for my next poetry collection, It's Important I Remember, due out 2/15/2026 from Northwestern University Press and now available to pre-order. I pray that these words move you; may they be part of a movement toward one another and away from tyranny.

Poets! For the first time ever, I'm available for consultations on your full-length and chapbook manuscripts, as well as assorted packets. You can find details around services and pricing at the link in my bio. I look forward to working with you and delighting in your poems!

I'm kicking off National Poetry Month at the Academy of American Poets' Poem-A-Day series! You can read my new poem, "Magnitude and Bond," at the link below. Special thanks goes to Willie Perdomo for making space for me and these words this month. poets.org/poem/magnitu...

Barely lol

Poetry is what you find in the dirt in the corner, overhear on the bus, God in the details, the only way to get from here to there. —Elizabeth Alexander, “Ars Poetica #100: I Believe”

Critiques of capitalism aside for a moment, we should ask why a man of such demonstrable greed is willing to lead a "transition" where the equities markets are driven into the ground and prices on working people are shot to the moon. None of the possible answers are good news.

NEW: The actions of Trump and Vance in recent weeks highlight something under-appreciated. The American right is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the west (even the conservative west). My column: www.ft.com/content/3046...

Whomever is advising the Democrats is on the other team.

Stripping away your healthcare. Going to gut Social Security. Destroying the value of your retirement accounts. And you're clapping for it like a seal because you hate people even more than you love yourself. Couldn't be me.

John Cena turned heel. We’re in uncharted waters as a people.

In occupied France, people would drop their used matches folded into a V, as a secret sign of resistance. People who opposed the Nazis would see them, knew they weren't alone, & felt emboldened to take action. Some modern day equivalents here--small but powerful actions you can absolutely do:

Thinking about Brother Malcolm today.

More than any other quality, what defines broad swaths of my fellow Americans is not apathy, but dishonesty: intellectual dishonesty; emotional dishonesty; spiritual dishonesty. Dishonesty about what we’ve done, about what we’re doing, about what we’re going to do as a people.

I'm not doom-scrolling. I'm writing sonnets about what I see.

Some of my favorite love poems of all time (and I'm sure I'm not alone on these): "Object Permanence" by Nicole Sealey "Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem" by Matthew Olzmann "Love Poem Beginning with a Yellow Cab" by @joseolivarez.bsky.social

If you're in love with someone, good for you. If they love you back, even better. If they're far away, that's okay: distances can always be closed. And if they're with you, I pray you both make the most of that togetherness.

I was praying, by some miracle, people survived that plane/helicopter collision by Reagan National Airport last night but it seems that will not be the case. My condolences to the families who lost loved ones. And a demand of the US military to provide answers on how this could even happen.

One of the best things you can do right now is read books. Buy them. Borrow them from the library. Gift them. Read history. Read fiction. Read science writing. Read anything that shows you the world is bigger than what fascists say it is. Read to remember why your resistance matters. 📚💙

1000% this. Public libraries are actually pretty radical--free to all, and based on the idea that info should be available to all. Get a library card! Use your library! Those numbers often play into their funding.

At the turn of the year, Poetry Northwest generously offered me the opportunity to highlight three poems from my forthcoming collection, IT'S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER. You can read an intro, the title poem and a second poem here. My profound gratitude goes to Keetje Kuipers and the entire staff.

I think I've asked this before, maybe, at the other place... but I'll ask here. For those familiar with my work in some way, are there any elements of craft that you'd be interested in hearing me discuss given what you've read from me and seen in my work?

The absolute last thing I’ll feel about any of this is numbness.

This was an incredible conversation and I encourage folks to hit the Youtube link and watch because Donika, Morgan, and @rebel19.bsky.social had so many incredible things to say.

While I'm awaiting more reports, I am heartened by news of a ceasefire in Gaza such that more innocent Palestinian people do not have to die in this moment. But a ceasefire is not a cede away from the colonialist project. There is not yet freedom. There is not yet liberation.

We lost another light tonight. Thank you for everything, Nikki Giovanni.

"It does seem he has some ill will toward corporate America" describes millions upon millions of people

I will never revel in the murder of any person, but I’ll point out that the CEO of United Healthcare was killed with the same amount of intention it takes to craft policies that make vital, life-saving healthcare inaccessible for millions of people. Both acts are criminal to me.

This piece shook me.

So funny seeing accounts pop up here on Bluesky that clearly only exist because people have been leaving Twitter and some people don't know what to do with themselves if they can't harass others to make themselves feel powerful. What a pitiful existence that is.

Hey there! Hoping to give away some books as part of the Nov 2024 Lights & Shadows Poetry Book Giveaway. Find details below on how to enter and win a free poetry book of your choice for you and a buddy. I'll draw the next set of winners on Sunday, 12/1. www.cortneylamarcharleston.com/lights-shado...

Who, in your life, told you that you were powerless and why did you believe them?

The ramifications of this blatant power grab would be devastating and far-reaching. Removing tax-exempt status at executive whim would stifle dissent, creative self-expression and could disrupt the ability of community members to help each other through goodwill. This bill must die in the Senate.

Poetry in a Time of Genocide, a two-episode special of the IMEU's This Is Palestine podcast. Host Diana Buttu speaks with National Book Award finalists Fady Joudah and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha (@lenakt.bsky.social) on genocide and defying cultural erasure pod.link/1509337661/e...

To @lenakt.bsky.social: Absolutely, I want to congratulate you. Your National Book Award was well deserved. But more than congratulating, I want to thank you. Thank you, dear poet. May more and more heed your call to us every minute, every hour, every day until Palestine is free.

Given the transfusion of new energy on this platform in the last few weeks, we have a real opportunity to use this space more constructively and informatively even than the other one. I hope we don't waste it. I hope we're not just running away from problems that will never allow us to escape them.

A wise, wise thread. Dr. Prescod-Weinstein, through heart and mind, helps keep me steady in unsteady times. If you're unfamiliar, give a follow. Be blessed and get prepared.

As someone who fancies himself a writer, I'm already mentally preparing for a time when the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities have been zeroed out of the federal budget. It was tried the first Trump term, and it will be tried again almost surely.

Over a year into livestreamed genocide, on the eve of the arrival of a regressive and repressive regime at home, while wildfires blaze and storms strengthen and increase in frequency... I'm holding so tightly to the truth. Through it all, we need keepers of the truth.

Our radius of concern for people must be expansionary in this moment. Retreating into ourselves individually is self-defeating. Selfishness will be self-defeating.