Francis Santana: “I wish I could say this is a new poem that I’ve written within the past week, but the sad truth is that this poem is a response to what happened to Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014. Same problems and same reactions six years later, and nothing has improved. This poem is for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and every black person murdered by the hate and racism that has become unique to the American fabric. Please consider donating to The Liberty Fund or a bail fund of your choice.” (web)
Francis Santana: “When I was ten years old, I found Pablo Neruda gathering dust on a bookshelf—that’s when poetry became the only language I could speak to my first love. When that first love looked away I wrote to myself about solitude. When in that solitude I began to see my sisters and my brothers being carted away around me, I had to come out and speak up, to write beyond myself. I do get lost sometimes, mostly in the type of anger that supersedes tact and drowns the tenderness required to mend bullet holes. And the truth is I want to give up more often than not, but to hang back is not an option. I write to be heard, to keep away from extinction.” (twitter)