I promised art this week, and I will deliver next week. But this week I want to speak a song of praise for my mentor Phillip Shabazz.
Phillip’s latest book of poems, “Moonflower,” comes out September 2 from Fernwood Press. If you were ever going to buy a book to read poems that resemble an urban tapestry and emphasize resilience despite struggle, it would be this one by Phillip.
As a poet and a person, I feel extremely fortunate to know Phillip, and to have him by my side as a mentor and friend. As a poet, there aren’t a lot of folks who can speak to me at that level, but Phillip does. Without being a bully about it.
I used to wonder why I attended three and four workshops a summer, even as I traveled to Provincetown, Middlebury, Chattanooga, and beyond. I don’t go to as many workshops now, and I finally realized why — it’s because I found Phillip.
You see, I think I traveled to workshops subconsciously seeking a teacher who would invest in me, become my mentor. My poems and I missed an instructor’s focused attention after graduate school, and I learn better from a person than a book. Or alone.
After dozens of workshops with good instructors, I often ended up disappointed. The week-long class would end, and there was rarely any more contact with the instructor. You see, the workshop atmosphere can be so warm and friendly that you might leave feeling like you’ll keep in touch with your instructor.
But I’m here to tell you, you usually don’t. You usually have five days in your instructor’s presence, and rarely do they have time for you after that. This was true for me, after those dozens of workshops and conferences. Then along came Phillip.
Not only has Phillip had time for me, he makes time. He’s the most generous man in the poetry business. He’s currently helping edit my chapbook “The Higher Call” – probably because he started me on the journey at Table Rock.
More than that, Phillip generously reads any poem I send him. And he sends back notes that give a large view before going into details. A note from him might start with, “This poem has the disorienting quality of a speaker grappling with time, cognition, and a fractured sense of self.” Things I wasn’t fully aware of myself.
His new Zoom classes are a god-send. Not only because we get to see him and “be” with him more often, but because of the packets he creates for class. This week’s intro talked about how “voice is intimacy negotiated,” plus a hundred other insightful and instructive sentences from the mind of this talented man.
Let me pause a moment to give a shout-out to my other wonderful mentors. Donna Ball has been a generous friend of mine and mentor to my novels for over a decade now. And I’m proud beyond words to have Andrea Jurjević on my poetry team, also mentoring me through publishing “The Higher Call.”
Back to Phillip’s newest book. “Moonflower” will be full of his identity-based style as it touches on the cost of progress and the fading spirit of community but with an emphasis on the steady blossoming of the moonflower. You’d be supporting one of my most favorite people on Earth if you ordered a copy at this link: Moonflower
Next week, the art. I promise.
