“Old Photographs: 1924 & 1942,” “Welcoming Committee,” “Borders,” and “Mestiza” by Robert René Galván appeared in Issue 28 and can be read here.
We’d love to hear more about this set of poetry.
The poems in this set were provoked by a racial incident which I experienced while waiting in line at a grocery store in Queens, NY. I hadn’t been the recipient of such vitriol since my time in Texas which was abundant since childhood, and almost expected. In fact, an entire collection of poems sprang from the encounter, the title poem, Undesirable, being the very first one. Almost every poem from the collection has been published so far and the book is forthcoming from Somos en Escrito Foundation Press out of Berkeley.
What was the most difficult part in writing this set?
Reliving a plethora of hurtful episodes has been a difficult process, from the “there goes the neighborhood petition” described in Welcoming Committee to racial profiling by law enforcement, but mainly the resurgence of bigotry in the country.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
To Build My Shadow a Fire: The Poetry and Translations of David Wevill, whose tremendous gifts deserve to be more well-known – published at the beginning of the decade. I am proud to consider him my mentor and confidant.
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
I actually had a drink with the poet Yusef Komunyakaa at the Goethe Institute in New York City after his reading. That was a special moment.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
I have two forthcoming books of poems, Undesirable: Race and Remembrance, Somos en Escrito Foundation Press- Berkeley, and The Shadow of Time, Adelaide Books – New York. Standing Stones: New and Selected Poems is being shopped around internationally and I am finishing a book of poetry inspired by the Periodic Table of Elements entitled: Table of Elements.
Our thanks to Robert for taking the time to answer a few questions and share his work. Read Galván’s poems, “Old Photographs: 1924 & 1942,” “Welcoming Committee,” “Borders,” and “Mestiza,” here: https://www.sequestrum.org/three-poems-by-robert-rene-galvan.
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Robert René Galván, born in San Antonio, resides in New York City where he works as a professional musician and poet. His collections of poems are Meteors, published by Lux Nova Press and Undesirable: Race and Remembrance, Somos en Escrito Foundation Press. His poetry was recently featured in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Azahares Literary Magazine, Gyroscope, Hawaii Review, Hispanic Culture Review, Newtown Review, Panoply, Prachya Review, Sequestrum, Shoreline of Infinity, Somos en Escrito, Stillwater Review, West Texas Literary Review, and the Winter 2018 issue of UU World. He is a Shortlist Winner Nominee in the 2018 Adelaide Literary Award for Best Poem. Recently, his poems are featured in Puro ChicanX Writers of the 21st Century and in Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art and Thought. His forthcoming books of poetry are Undesirable: Race and Remembrance, Somos en Escrito Foundation Press, The Shadow of Time, Adelaide Books and Standing Stones, Finishing Line Press. His poems have been nominated for Best of Web and the Pushcart Prize. His poem, Awakening, was featured in the author’s voice on NPR as part of National Poetry Month in the Spring of 2021.