Health, Poetry, and People of Color: A Reflection on Intersectionality

By Poetry Co-Editor Reinfred Addo

In the 2022 issue of Bacopa Literary Review, we the editors had a special request for the poetry submissions: in addition to general themes and non-themes within free verse, formal, and visual poetries, we asked for free verse and formal poetry that touched on the theme of health/sickness/wellbeing by Black, indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC). This theme came about because I’ve noticed that, throughout history, systems of injustice have infiltrated health, whereby health and wellbeing of BIPOC people has been placed on the margins whereas that of White people has received more attention and eradication effort. Historically, this pattern has included examples such as: the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, medical textbooks using illustrations and models of predominantly white people, physicians’ not considering that BIPOC people display physical symptoms to certain conditions in a different way to white people (e.g., eczema), and the assumption by health professionals that Black people have a higher pain tolerance and thus their complaints about pain can be minimized (which has contributed to issues such as a higher maternal mortality rate for Black mothers compared to their white counterparts). 

During the last few years, we’ve seen this issue in the form of the COVID pandemic, whereby BIPOC individuals have lost more people than white people, and whereby BIPOC scientists played key roles in developing the needed vaccines yet the public face of said vaccines have tended to be white people (especially white males). Because Bacopa is an international journal that receives many submissions from BIPOC individuals around the world, and because poetry offers a creatively powerful angle into the theme of health, our call for submissions was our small attempt at ensuring the voices that make up this portion of our submittership are heard regarding such an ever-relevant theme. 

Surely enough, the poems we received did not disappoint. The quality of submissions around this theme was so high that it was a tough job for us to decline some of them due to the logistical/spatial/economic constraints of the journal. The ones we did publish, we feel, are symbolic of the high degree of health-related poems we received during the submissions period. In the journal, readers will find many examples, such as this section from “In the Name of the Name” by Missouri-based Sunyoung Kay: “Today, I march / to this building / that rises like a castle of mirror-gleam windows / where my dad once stayed / stomach stilled, putrid, black gunk / being drawn from a tube down his nose, / to witness the next thousand little drownings.” Of note, we felt so strongly about this poem that we gave it the honorable mention distinction in the free verse category. Another such example is the pantoum “Solitary Musings” by Afro-British writer Maroula Blades, from the formal poetry category. Here’s a line of this work’s vivid account of COVID-19:

Heat kills COVID-19. I hunch over a bowl of steaming water.
The mind is foggier than the rising menthol mist.
My head slumps like a clump of tabloid papier mâché.
Ten hours to pass before bedtime, solitary confinement.
My mind is foggier than the rising menthol mist.
I need groceries. Should a friend make a visit?
Ten hours to pass before bedtime, solitary confinement.
The clock’s second hand turns in slow motion.

Bacopa 2022 contains more health-related pieces like the above which speak to us on both a craft level and content level. We hope, like us, readers are stopped in their tracks and develop an appreciation of the brilliant work created by each author who tackled this special theme.  

Bacopa Literary Review: Notes on Visual Poetry

By Poetry Co-Editor Oliver Keyhani

There is no one definition nor one set of standards for what constitutes visual poetry. However, one critical aspect is that it shouldn’t be considered simply as a poem with a visual in the background or vice versa. We could start by saying that visual poetry is form of literary expression that combines the power of language with the beauty of visual art. This category of poetry emphasizes, amongst other aspects, the visual parameters of language, which expands to how placement, shape, size, and typography of words are arranged on a page. At some basic level, we seek work that is both aesthetically pleasing and thought-provoking; the essence of which should include words, even if abstracted into asemic text, having no specific semantic content, and/or images that combine to create powerful and meaningful messages–even if those “messages” are the obscuring of the language and words themselves!

Concrete poetry (also known as shape poetry) is one common form of visual poetry. Words are arranged into a particular shape or design, such that the constructed image becomes part of the meaning of the poem. Concrete poetry can be incredibly effective at conveying complex ideas and emotions in visually stunning and intellectually engaging manners. Similarly, but sometimes distinct, calligram poetry uses words to create an image that resembles or mimics the subject of the poem. Often used to create poems about nature, animals, or other objects, that can be rendered with words forming the image, it can be a powerful means for conveying both beauty and complexity of the natural world. 

Visual poetry can also include non-representational language coupled to visual elements as intermedia and extends to non-language “alien” scripts (as mentioned, asemic writing). Visual poetry forms are highly versatile and can be used to express emotions, ideas, sometimes in a playful and lighthearted manner, but can also be deeply serious and thought-provoking. These poems are particularly apt at sharply conveying personal experiences or to make commentary on social and political issues. From we, the Editors’ perspective, visual poetry allows the poet to experiment with different forms and styles. There are no hard and fast rules about what visual poems should look like, which means that poets have the freedom to be creative and to explore new ways of expressing themselves. 

A few thoughts: (i) have a clear idea of what you want to convey with your poem, (ii) know what message you want to communicate, and (iii) understand how and why you are using the visual elements of the poem to communicate that message. Some of the most powerful works of visual poetry have been created by poets who were willing to take risks and to push the boundaries of the form. Remember that visual poetry is more than just the way words look on the page coupled to images, it is about the synthesis and network between the words and the images, and how these elements combine to create connected meaningful works of art. Broadly speaking, we look for pieces that experiment with forms and styles to reach and touch the audience. This is only our second year having Visual Poetry as a category for Bacopa. We hope to see your creations as works of art that can inspire and speak to the human experience in a profound way.

Take a look below at last years Award and Honorable Mention for inspiration!

Bacopa Literary Review Visual Poetry 2022 Award: "A Change in Mood II" by Karla Van Vliet

Bacopa Literary Review Visual Poetry 2022 Honorable Mention: "NEWS" by J. Nishida