For me, the way that I’ve learned to access faith or my relationship with God is primarily through poetry. It is this dynamic, ongoing process, and I think that that’s the way that faith has to live in me.
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Beauty and violence. Despair and hope. Racism and tolerance. Some might reference these words, aligned alongside one another, as juxtaposition. Others might label this a power move. I would clarify that, when used by Lee Herrick, it is life-altering and, in his third book, Scar and Flower (Word Poetry Press, 2019), Herrick delivers just that. He approaches prose with passion, a vengeance against social injustice, but also with subtlety and elegance.
In his opening poem, “Dear _______,”;
...I saw my daughter cradle the broken body of a tiny bird. I saw a young poet repair the broken charm of a younger poet...
Herrick’s work pushes a shifting lens, a way to see the world through more than one filter, affording an opportunity to compare, contrast, and uncover the coexistence of duplicities within life in a way that pauses breath and ceases a moment. In a way that alters the view forever. In a way that matters most.
I had the honor of interviewing Lee Herrick about his writing processes, his influences, and his works.
A Normal School Interview with Lee Herrick
“Not finding my birth parents nudged me into making peace within myself, sort of a forgiveness of Korea, of the adoption.”
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