Moon Beams #3 - Monica Prince

I met Monica Prince the night I had to follow her perform one of the best poetry readings I've ever seen, and she was just as welcoming, lively, and insightful then as she was in this conversation we shared on “Moon Beams.”

We had plenty to talk about, including the absolute diamonds Monica gleaned from meeting and speaking with Nikki Giovanni herself in '20, one of which was, "You know what, poetry can make you do a lot of excellent things" after Monica shared that a line of Nikki's prompted her to break up with an old boyfriend.

Monica also spoke to the influence of Ntozake Shange on her work, the definition of and ongoing growth she finds in choreopoetry, the Santa Fe Writers Project, (with a current contest taking submissions and judged by Deesha Philyaw herself at sfwp.com) & Monica's latest book "Roadmap" available everywhere, but especially her site monicaprince.com (with another, "Force: A Chorepoem" due out in January '26, stay tuned).

The two poetry lines Monica shared carried a common theme of solace in very different ways, with Matthew Dickman's line, "I hope you do not suffer," impressing in a way that Monica defined well as "a healthy reminder for us all that suffering is inevitable, but there is someone out there who doesn't want that for you."

With Ishion Hutchinson's line from his book House of Lords and Common, the imagery is striking: "The blood pools at the body's back"

Monica told me she sees in this passage the point during sleep when our bodies extend as they relax, the value coming in that "....there's not a lot of peace in our lives, and I feel like knowing that there is a moment, some point while we're asleep, where our entire body is completely relaxed, that's just a really beautiful thing to think about."

My chat with Monica marked another high point of inspiration and growth for me and #moonbeams, and I am deeply grateful for her friendship, generosity, and the leadership she gives and keeps giving to the poetry community.

I hope everyone is in as healthy and creative a space as possible at the moment, stay sharp and read more poetry and definitely write more poetry, too, everybody.