Jamaal May Biography

Spout of a leaf,
listen out for the screams
of your relentless audience:
the applause of a waterfall
in the distance,
...

In the beginning
there was the war.

The war said let there be war
and there was war.
...

The heart trembles like a herd of horses.
—Jontae McCrory, age 11

Hold a pomegranate in your palm,
imagine ways to split it, think of the breaking
...

have this, and this isn't a mouth
full of the names of odd flowers

I've grown in secret.
I know none of these by name
...

You will often be held,
unable to hold back,
and it will be necessary
to get used to the downward swing,
anticipate the strike and love it,
if for no other reason than to love
the upward swing and sturdy
rhythm that accompanies the two.
Be hickory or ash, straight-grained
and strong enough to survive overstrikes—
one miss could snap your neck.
May sandpaper be the rough
hand that rubs you smooth.
Be carved until the end of you is a wedge—
you already intuit the precision it takes
to fit well enough to not be dislodged.
Be a length of carbon-rich steel,
2,350 degrees Fahrenheit in the open flame
before you are positioned between
two dies, let the pressure have
all of you until you are formed.
Have the flash cut from you;
excess is excessive. Be cooled in water,
not air. Don't breathe. Drown
...