Vision

with Camille Hernandez

I have so many things to say about our poet today, but I will start with this: I admire Camille Hernandez so much, and have been honored to orbit in her space for a few years now. Camille’s writing draws on such depths, and I can’t wait for you to experience today’s poem.

Camille’s work explores the fluidity of intimacy in marginalized women’s relationships. It invites readers to reflect on their allegiance to oppressing and exploiting marginalized women. If language is the poet’s jungle, then dignity is Camille’s machete. I craft poetry into vibrant portraits of marginalized women. With a writing notebook in hand, I contemplate how language dictates cultural, social, economic, and political realities. Camille’s pen hacks away withering flora, uncovering nutrient-rich life beneath rotting roots. Camille’s writing serves meals from those nutrients, proclaiming dignity through pairing vibrant textures, intricate patterns, and sensory experiences. Portrait and quilting artists like Kehinde Wiley, Bisa Butler, and Precious D Lovell inspire her creative expression. Poets Elizabeth Acevedo, Jericho Brown, and Ariana Brown push Camille to carve new narrative trails that explore the hushed intimacies lost in suppressed histories.

Camille is the poet laureate of Anaheim, California, and has done incredible work in the community.

Camille chose the word vision.

ekphrasis after a controlled burn

here is the scar
where my arms
narrate inferno

soon the ashes
will gather like
petals of lime

still { & very still }
we wait—
becoming beautiful

as fury done to
blooms culled in
thickness & heat

Photo by Matthew Smith on Unsplash

Friends,

In case you didn’t know, I am starting a Liminality Journal Book Club! But this book club is different; we are gathering in community together, going deeper into the books we are reading, through journaling, sharing in small groups, and supporting one another on our journeys.

Our first pick is The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis Weller.

The book club is for paid subscribers. You can become a paid subscriber for as little as $6/month, or pay annually to save a little money. You’ll also have access to our writing groups and other online gatherings and personal essays and journal notes from me.

Become a paid subscriber or update your subscription below:

Here are a few more details, if you’re interested:

• We are meeting on Fridays In June/July

• 5 sessions, the book split into two chapters at a time

• all sessions are 12-1:30pm ET

• sessions won’t be recorded but I’ll be sharing posts for paid subscribers to read along

Become a paid subscriber here if you’d like to join us: