Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight: Dorsía Smith Silva
This monthly series features poems by women of color in the early stages of their publishing careers. It is our intention to create more space at Perugia for the work of poets who are Black, Indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC). We hope using our platform to highlight this work will expand the readership of the poets we spotlight. This series aligns with Perugia’s mission to celebrate and support emerging women poets, inclusive of gender-expansive identities; featured poems will be from poets with no more than one published full-length collection. We’d love to hear from readers with suggestions for poems & poets to feature.
November 2024 Poet: Dorsía Smith Silva
The Awakening of Hurricane María
At first, the rain comes in whispers: thin slants on the windows, then it scrawls across the glass like long graffiti, reaching out to stretch mark the gutters and dwarf the downspouts. The birds vanish past the flamboyán trees: a quick foreshadowing of the sky gaping in steep clouds. Thunder shutters through the treetops, while lightning siphons off the breath like fragrant heat. The rain plunges in the arched breezeways, decapitating the hibiscus and beehive ginger into matted limbs. The afternoon takes me hostage: wind whipping my forlorn face, kidnapping the right side of skin. What more do I have to give. Not even a turn to God to rebuke the hours.
Source
In Inheritance of Drowning, CavanKerry Press, 2024
Poet Bio
Dorsía Smith Silva is the author of In Inheritance of Drowning (CavanKerry, 2024), poetry editor of The Hopper, and Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. Her poetry has been published in the Denver Quarterly, Waxwing, Shenandoah, and elsewhere. She is also the editor of Latina/Chicana Mothering, and the coeditor of seven books. She has received scholarships and fellowships from Bread Loaf and the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. She is a member of the Get the Word Out Poetry Cohort of Poets & Writers in 2024 and has a Ph.D. in Caribbean Literature and Language. She posts on social media @DSmithSilva, and she is thrilled that In Inheritance of Drowning is on the booklist of poetry books to read for fall 2024 by Publishers Weekly.