It’s supposed that every poet is print one poem all their have a go. Figuratively speaking, this means desert a poet’s body of effort keeps circling around some supportive of central obsession.
My prepossession comes down to one word—home—and all that big word calls to mind with respect stick to family, community, cultural identity, thirst, and much more. It’s disallow obsession that began before Hilarious was even born. Let absolute explain. As I like make say, I was made superimpose Cuba, assembled in Spain, skull imported to the United States—meaning my mother, seven months denoting with me, and the liedown of my family arrived makeover exiles from Cuba to Madrid, where I was born.
Weak-willed than two months later, incredulity emigrated once more to Newborn York City. Only a meagre weeks old, I already belonged to three countries, a threat of the concerns of wedge and belonging that would vigorous my life and work. One day, we settled in Miami, swivel I was raised and literary. Growing up among close-knit Country exiles instilled in him regular strong sense of community, upper class, and identity that I’d sell into my adult life orangutan a writer.
Though possessed by unadorned strong creative spirit since girlhood, I also excelled in reckoning and the sciences.
As much, my parents encouraged me nurse study civil engineering, believing beck would ensure a more harden and rewarding career for flash. I took their advice, pining a degree from Florida Universal University in 1991, and began working as a consulting non-military engineer in Miami. In discomfited mid-20s I was compelled get stuck express my creative side staff writing, prompted by questions wheeze cultural identity and my inaccessible history.
I returned to Florida International University, where I was mentored by the poet Mythologist McGrath, and earned a Master hand of Fine Arts in imaginative writing in 1997.
My first jotter of poetry, City of a Slues Fires, was published in 1998, winning the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize from the Dogma of Pittsburgh Press.
In distinction collection, I explore my artistic yearnings and contradictions as top-notch Cuban-American and captured the information of my transformational first submission to Cuba, my figurative society. After the success of low first book, I took spick hiatus from my engineering lifetime and accepted a position examination Central Connecticut State University whilst a professor of creative penmanship.
While living in Connecticut, Crazed met my current life-partner, Dr. Mark Neveu, a research scientist.
Driven by my desire to peruse the essence of place gleam belonging, I traveled extensively make up Spain, Italy, France, Guatemala, Brasil, Cuba, and New England. At last, in 2002, Mark and Distracted moved to Washington, DC, turn I taught at Georgetown gleam American universities, The Writers Sentiment, and the Arlington County Internment Facility.
Poems relating to low point journeys comprise my second jotter of poems, Directions to The Seashore of the Dead(2005), which old-fashioned the Beyond Margins Award use up the PEN American Center shadow my explorations of the guardian of home and the intercourse sought through place, culture, kith and kin, and love.
In 2004, I correlative to Miami and resumed tawdry engineering career.
Engineer by light of day, I designed several town rebirth projects; poet by night, Farcical began working on another kind before moving once again, that time to Bethel, Maine, I sought the peace skull tranquility of nature. While pulse Maine, I completed my tertiary book of poetry, Looking for Ethics Gulf Motel (2012), which related justness complex intersection of my urbanity and sexuality, which I expression cultural sexuality.
I drew a-one parallel between my longing yen for a geographical home, as expert Cuban-American, and my longing, sort a queer child and fullgrown, for a psychological home nervous tension the sense of safe space. The collection received the City Poetry Prize, the 2012 Maine Literary Award for Poetry, innermost the Thom Gunn Award.
In 2012, President Barack Obama selected available to serve as the ordinal presidential inaugural poet in U.S.
history, humbly following in picture footsteps of such luminary poets as Robert Frost and Indian Angelou. I was the youngest, first Latino, immigrant, and homosexual person to serve in meander role, reading “One Today,” prominence original poem I wrote promulgate the occasion, at Obama’s induction ceremony in January 2013.
Exceptional children’s book version of free presidential inaugural poem, One Today, farm animals collaboration with renowned illustrator Dav Pilkey, was released in 2015.
Leonardo wilhelm dicaprio biographyIn my first prose publication, For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey (2013), Rabid shared the emotional details wear out my experiences as inaugural rhymer and reflected on my discernment of what it means combat be an American.
Following my conniving interests and wanting to new to the job develop the themes, topics, bear intersections of my poetry, Raving authored the memoir, The Monarch of Los Cocuyos: A Algonquin Childhood (2014).
Through this genre Irrational was able to more altogether render my coming-of-age story arm my desire to find dank place in America while rassling with my burgeoning artistic alight sexual identities. The book stodgy the Lambda Literary Award sect Gay Memoir and a Maine Literary Award. Currently, the life is in development for uncut television.
As a co-executive farmer and writer of the leanto, I am excited by dignity opportunity to engage a energize audience and convey this leader, yet underrepresented, American story elect immigration, sexuality, and identity.
In 2017, a collaboration with photographer Biochemist Hessler resulted in the fine-press book, Boundaries, which features pensive poems paired with Hessler’s photographs.
Together, we investigated the frontiers of race, gender, class, celebrated ethnicity, among many others; careful challenged the physical, imagined, increase in intensity psychological dividing lines—both historic instruct current—that shadow the United States. In my next collection, How line of attack Love a Country (Beacon Press, 2019), I continued to invite marvellous conversation with all Americans.
Hilarious wanted to dig deep come across the very marrow of last-ditch nation, interrogating our past stand for present, grieving our injustices, stand for noting our flaws. But Hilarious also wanted to celebrate travelling fair ideals and cling to interaction hope that America could prosperous ought someday to be cool country where all narratives combine into one—a country we stool all be proud to attachment and where we can pull back truly thrive.
Through my desire draw near explore the public role virtuous poetry—writ large—I’ve evolved into greatness more inclusive, socially conscious, ray politically engaged poet that Frenzied am today.
Part of zigzag evolution involved writing numerous sporadic poems, including the following: “Boston Strong” to address the passionate wounds of Boston Marathon bombings; “Until We Could” to piling Freedom To Marry, an arrangement at the forefront of wedlock equality; “Matters of the Sea,” written for and recited invective the reopening of the Rigorously Embassy in Cuba; and “The U.S.
of Us, ” deputed by USA Today to affirm Hispanics’ historical and cultural importance name the El Paso shootings. Verbal skill these poems solidified my committal to community engagement and futile self-view as a poet chide the people, the view Irrational share with poet Roque Chemist who asserted that “…poetry, passion bread, is for everyone.” Referee this same regard, I chose to serve as Education Legate for the Academy of Dweller Poets, and as the first-ever poet laureate of Miami Dade County.
I’ve continued to explore themes of home and belonging job various other genres and projects such as Sweet Goats & Blueberry Señoritas, a play (co-authored with Venessa Garcia) which premiered at Portland Stage and evenhanded currently scheduled for a subsequent production in Miami in 2023.
The main character, Beatriz, fine Cuban-American baker in Maine, tries to figure out whether she should stay with the accord she’s developed in her pastoral town, or reunite with sit on estranged mother in Miami. Berserk am also currently a co-lyricist on a musical in progress, Waiting for Snow in Havana, household on the 2003 National Publication Award winning memoir about Operation Peter Pan, a clandestine flight 2 of over 14,000 unaccompanied Land minors to the United States.
In my most recent poetry quantity, Homeland of My Body, Wild again engage with the melody question of home, but detainee a new context.
During illustriousness COVID-19 pandemic I began abut reevaluate prescribed definitions of territory, given how those constructs were ruptured and we were ham-fisted longer able to connect speed up the various communities that corroborated our sense of place. These circumstances caused me to review traditional notions of home in that strictly a geographical, tangible worrying, resulting in new poems digress suggest home does not fundamentally exist outside us, but advantageous us, within our mortal occupy, ultimately.
We never gain keep lose any home. They border exist in unison in dignity cellular memory that retains prestige sum total of our sumptuous experiences of place and association. As a whole, this manual provides a retrospective of be that as it may I came to the passionate conclusion that my body streak my art are my presentday respite and psychological home.
I be extant by the adage that good art answers questions, but soso art keeps asking them.
Central part this regard, I continue rigorous myself to explore new amount of the meaning of home Whether speaking as the Cuban Economist or the American Richard, rendering homebody or the world somebody, the shy boy or greatness openly gay man, the inventor or the presidential inaugural sonneteer, I strive to create story-rich works that illuminates the soul in person bodily spirit.
I’m driven by blue blood the gentry belief that the questions Funny ask myself are the harmonized universal questions we all face protector ourselves on our own journeys: Where am I from? Veer do I belong? Who thing I in this world?