School Rules, Lupe Mendez
January 06, 2023
Lupe Mendez, the current Texas Poet Laureate, is also an educator and activist in Houston. His poem "Rules at the Juan Marcos Huelga School (Even the Unspoken Ones)," online at the Poetry Foundation, is my pick for today. An excerpt:
[Shout on paper, write boldly,
in a book, in the middle of an open
field, in the street, in the classroom,
make sure your voice shrills.]
I'm grateful to the VS podcast for introducing me to Mendez and many other poets. Just like prior hosts Franny Choi and Danez Smith, the new duo, Ajanaé Dawkins and Brittany Rogers, are super fun to listen to, and their episodes always send me straight to library and bookstore websites looking for the work that was mentioned.
*****
The Poetry Friday roundup is at Reading to the Core. Next week it's right here, at Chicken Spaghetti.
Photo: Roll-gate mural in the Mission District, San Francisco. Susan Thomsen, 2021.
thank you for sharing the poem--these are rules indeed.
Posted by: Kay Jernigan McGriff | January 06, 2023 at 12:20 PM
Right? I'm looking forward to reading his book. Thanks for stopping by, Kay.
Posted by: Susan | January 06, 2023 at 02:41 PM
ooooooh. I love a good podcast. Thanks for the tip. And, wow. What a poem. Thank you again. I love Poetry Friday. I get the best stuff from all of us.
Posted by: Linda Mitchell | January 07, 2023 at 07:02 AM
YES to those annotated rules! Makes me want to grab a list of rules and shake them up.
I wish I could figure out how to make podcasts a part of my life. There is so much rich content out there. (I'm just getting caught up on Poetry Unbound!)
Posted by: Mary Lee | January 07, 2023 at 07:25 AM
Oh my, he is fiery in his words! Thank you for leading me to him! Now I want to look for other rules and RESPOND!
Posted by: PATRICIA J FRANZ | January 07, 2023 at 11:09 AM
Linda, I agree! Poetry Friday is such a source of inspiration.
Mary Lee and Patricia, years ago a friend and I had a good laugh over the Casual Friday rules, ie what was acceptable to wear at her office on Casual Friday (when the idea was new). It changed every week, clearly in response to something unacceptable that someone had worn. Rules and responding to them are great poetry prompts, yes?
Posted by: Susan | January 08, 2023 at 10:47 AM