Oddball Magazine will be publishing ongoing tributes to José Gouveia to in the hopes of raising awareness of the Joe Gouveia Recovery Fund, an effort to help offset the costs of the poet’s upcoming cancer surgery.

 

The Diaspora of Words

I, who have no particular credentials for writing any of these words;

I, who have no memories to jog your memory of things or times shared;

I, who have laid eyes on you once and only once, and that but a few months ago when we shared (with others) a place and a time to read our poems;

I, who have nevertheless followed your posts about poetry and pain, illness and friendship, hope and the fear that is never presented center stage in your works and days;

I, who must not intrude where others, more intimately of the elect, come forth, one by one, with their poems;

yet I have found the need to speak out, as you do, for the flesh of poetry, the speech of all poetry, denying silence its will to quench the word.

 

George Monteiro is the author of several works of literary criticism and two books of poetry, The Coffee Exchange and Double Weaver’s Knot. He lives in Windham, Connecticut.

Oddball Magazine will be publishing ongoing tributes to José Gouveia to in the hopes of raising awareness of the Joe Gouveia Recovery Fund, an effort to help offset the costs of the poet’s upcoming cancer surgery.