Poem in The Common: Issue No. 29:
My poem, Cedar Park Cafe, is published in print in The Common: Issue No. 29. You can order a print copy of Issue 29 here, and read it online here.
I’m so grateful to The Common for publishing this work. It is a true story about breakfast and about phone addiction, but most of all about chicken and waffles (I mean recovery) (which who’s to say are not the same thing) (hint: they are).
Poem in Cottonmouth Journal, Vol. 1 Issue 1:
My poem, Penance at Fátima, Caminho Português, is also published in the inaugural issue of Cottonmouth Journal! The poem was inspired by my day-trip to the Sanctuary of Fátima in May 2022, a Catholic pilgrimage site in Portugal, while I was walking the Portuguese Way of St. James. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered at the sanctuary on the anniversary of Mary’s apparition appearing to three shepherd children in Fátima, many people walking days or weeks from their homes to attend. I joined thousands of pilgrims in walking on our knees on the outdoor “penitential path,” a granite outdoor pathway leading to the Chapel of Apparitions, as an act of surrender and personal devotion. I also just found it meaningful to participate fully in what was happening around me.
The poem draws upon my last name, Oliveira, a Portuguese surname meaning “olive tree,” a broadly recognized symbol of peace. While factions of the Catholic Church have historically interpreted Mary’s apparition and message of peace at Fátima to be anti-communist in nature, my understanding of peace is in a world free of poverty and war, where we have the right to move about freely and live in dignity, and where resources are accessible for the many and not owned and controlled by a small wealthy class. Mark 10:25: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.”
Thank you to Fariha Róisín, author of Survival Takes a Wild Imagination and How to Cure a Ghost, for their review of my forthcoming poetry book, Itinerant Songs (July 2025). Itinerant Songs is available for preorder through Recenter Press! Preorders are a huge help!