Hermine D. Pinson
WebsiteYears: 1999. 2003. 2007
Biography
Hermine Pinson has published three poetry collections: ‘Ashe, Mama Yetta and Other Poems, and Dolores is Blue/Dolorez is Blues. She also released a cd Changine the Changes, in special collaboration with Yusef Komunyakaa and Estella Conwill Majozo. Her poetry, fiction, and critical essays have appeared in anthologies such as African American Review Callaloo, Cave Canem Poetry Anthology, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, Common Bonds: Modern Stories by and about Texas Women, Konch, Melus, and Forum for European Contributions in African American Studies. She recently co-edited a special issue of the literary journal Valley Voices on the life and work of poet Sterling Plumpp. She has had fellowships at Cave Canem, Soul Mountain, Yaddo, Macdowell, Byrdcliffe Colony, Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. She is an associate professor at the College of William and Mary.
Poem
Left-Handed Poem
The left hand turns inward
then rises like an ominous
hump from the limp neck
of the wrist
when I am making a point
or begging to differ,
fingers and thumb poised
to pick up some subtle thing
beyond themselves.
Came out the womb that way,
left hand turned inward
hard against the heart,
transparent knuckes
but workers hands
like Papa Johnny's.
Came out that way and
almost broke my arm.
The doctor pushed me back in again
so I could come out right.
In sleep the back of the hand
is half-closed against the sheets,
tending a dreamers chores or
guarding against some slight.
I used to play saxophone.
Now when I press fingers to keys,
the task is to reach through the
space on the page for some subtle thing.
Half-turning motion of pincers in the ocean.
At rest the left hand lies, a failed balletic exercise,
an invalid's carelessness,
a pulse,
a time signature, a womb's knowledge
of life's ceaseless motion.