Benry Juno James ‘25 was inspired to write “dear wormwood,” while doing their homework for an intermediate poetry class last fall. Last week, the poem won the H. MacKnight Black Poetry Prize, an award given to a senior each year.
James said the poem was inspired by a Tumblr post about the differences in a mother and father’s desire to have a baby, specifically the nuances between wanting a baby and wanting a child.
“The way they described it was very insightful, and I don’t want to say unique, but the way that they pictured it was unique,” James said. “So that was kind of rattling around in my head as I was doing my homework.”
The poem is written “based in New Victorian language,” according to James.
“That’s just the style of writing that I find the most fun,” they said.
James said that it was “really important” for them to be recognized for a piece in their chosen writing style.
“It was very nice to know that there are people who do see the worth in my style and that I don’t have to manipulate it in order to find success,” James said.
James, as well as runners-up Yumna Hussain ‘25 and James Boateng ‘25, had the opportunity to read their poems in Skillman Library’s Gendebien Room. This year’s contest judge, poet Danez Smith, also read a selection of their poetry at the event.
“As another nonbinary queer poet, I mean, there were moments where I felt tears in my eyes,” James said of their experience listening to Smith’s poetry. “Even though our experiences of being nonbinary are very different, there’s still that shared connection.”
Hussain’s poem, entitled “Beneath the Veil,” is about her journey and growth wearing her hijab.
“I just wanted to write about something personal and something that related to me as well,” Hussain said. “I was thinking about my evolution in college, and my hijab is a big part of it.”
“So I just wrote about how I felt as a freshman, but now as a senior, so much more confident in who I am, how I look, what I wear and learning to love myself in my hijab,” she continued.
Boateng’s piece, called “Gather them and sell,” is about illegal mining in Ghana ruining the country’s water.
“It was talking about both the fact that we’re letting these people do this and what it means to us,” Boateng said of the poem. “Because we lose our waters and we lose our history and we destroy the land.”
Boateng’s poem came out of a class assignment with the prompt “water,” taking inspiration from his friends in Ghana who were arrested for having a peaceful protest about this issue.
“It was a thing everybody was talking about, so at that moment, when I thought about water, that’s what I wrote about,” he said.
James, Hussain and Boateng had a lunch discussion with Smith before the reading. All three writers cited this as a thought-provoking experience.
“It was good to just get insights and stuff like that,” Hussain said.
James found hearing Smith’s poetry and the experience of the reading as a whole extremely meaningful.
“It’s a memory that I will treasure,” they said.
…
dear wormwood,
your womb is not my chrysalis,
your fiber-optic filament not my blood.
i claim mastery over my selfishness
so i can be whole in our cleavage.
my fist closes, i shall not hold your hand;
i can toddle on my own.
my untrimmed nails pierce my skin and
cherry-gold ichor flows to color my palms,
whose creases you used to trace.
let me be selfish that i might find myself,
the full moon illuminating
white chalk spread across in crop circles,
and hill figures,
uncovered once your gaze fled
to profitable pastures.
i know what you made of me,
and formed me to be—
why only want a bantling
when i will live a near immortal life
beyondwards?
i breathe deeply, at peace.
severance sounds the dawn horn
to greet the hounds and their master
as at last,
my mouth knows the sound
of my own name.
