Five poems have been published in A Thin Slice of Anxiety.
being considerate
“Lord, we know what we are but know not / What we may be.”
she never made the connection
an open letter to the man clipping his fingernails in this restaurant
the things you don’t admit
My poems “when asked why I will never be poet laureate of [redacted]” and “no” appear in the latest issue of Bicoastal Review . Both poems are accompanied by a reading.
Two poems from Promises to Keep— “self-fulfilling” and “the prophet laments his colleagues”— appear in Jacket2’s “The imagination is not a state”: A folio in honor of William Blake, edited by K Prevallet.
These two poems are drawn from Promises to Keep (Wayfarer Books, 2026): a narrative in persona poems voicing the words of The Prophet, who lives in our present socio-political realities but is fueled by the same fiery impulse toward justice and reform of the 9th and 8th century BCE prophets of the Hebrew Bible after whom he is inspired. These prophets include Ezekiel, whose visions were famously interpreted by William Blake in word and image. As a budding poet, Songs of Innocence and of Experience was one of the first collections I purchased in college, inspiriting my writing throughout the years. Despite their boldness, Ezekiel, Blake, and The Prophet all question the nature of their Call to creative service in the world. All three also had their mental faculties called into question by contemporaries and future voices. Perhaps this is the cost of tapping into the unseen, numinous wellspring as a source of inspiration.
“The Hypocrites address Dante,” Gustave Dore [Dante's Inferno]
"waking with nightmares" written after a section of G.K. Chesterton’s book The Everlasting Man and is now published in Vita Poetica along with a reading of the poem.
It’s a little dark, but that’s kind of the point. . .
“…it is not the stones, / But the child’s mound—" (which is a golden shovel from Robert Frost’s “Home Burial”) was nominated for a Best of the Net by Flight: A Literary Sampler
"Reach out your hand..." is a nonfiction piece which braids Caravaggio's painting The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, Elizabeth Ohlson Wallin's photo The Doubter, sexuality and gender identity, theology, basic survival, and high school hallways, all while Nickel Creek's "Doubting Thomas" plays in the background.
Very proud to have it appear in Southern Humanities Review.
My two poems “response time” & “Death Still Checks in on Me” (after a poem by the wonderful and talented Maya Williams) appear in 88 Unashamed Black Mental Health Stories (A Blacklandia Anthology).
Faith, love, and anger in Matthew E. Henry’s new collection
“The day of reckoning / has arrived,” writes Matthew E. Henry in his new collection, Promises To Keep (Wayfarer). That day is each day, and this book serves as a reckoning itself, with the contradictions, the inequity, the many and varied iterations of violence and hate. Wrath and love hold hands in these poems, many of them voiced by a man who’s been called to be a prophet. …
Read the rest of Nina MacLaughlin’s lovely review of Promises to Keep in New England Literary News through the link below!
“tohu va-vohu” exists at the intersection of a Biblical creation narrative and the destruction of Black communities.
It’s now published in Plough Quarterly
Two video clips from my reading at The Voices in Verse Poetry Coffee House at New Heights Charter School of Brockton on May 19, 2026.
“Lady Daedalus” was first published in my chapbook Dust & Ashes (Californios Press, 2020).
“reflection” was first published in The Decolonial Passage and nominated for a Best of the Net.
Both are ekphrastic poems included in my forthcoming collection Selling the World (Shanti Arts Publishing) .
I am excited to have three poems published in Public School Poetry, a litmag with a really cool style: accepted work is accompanied by a “five paragraph essay” (interpreted broadly/wildly) by another accepted author.
Thus, my three poems—“J.B. sings a new song,” “a simple misunderstanding,” & “an open letter to the white woman offended by my use of ‘The N-word’”.— is accompanied by an essay by poet Kristie L. Williams, while my essay—”Mother of Exiles”— accompanies the work of Sally Rosen Kindred.
Thimble Literary Magazine has published a weird little ‘sonnet’ of mine entitled “on hearing Luke Comb’s cover of ‘Fast Car’ for the first time, over the P.A., as students walked into my class,” which is about…well, you can guess.
I am pleased to announce that I am joining American Poetry Journal as one of the new poetry editors. Send some work our way!
My dialogue driven, flash fiction piece “The Appointment” was published in the latest issue of DREGINALD. It's an increasingly chaotic mediation on the history of the word “placebo” among other things.
Sophia Neer, Staff Writer • February 3, 2026
For Poet Matthew E. Henry, inspiration comes from every aspect of his life. Whether it’s a couple arguing in a restaurant, people watching at Cafe Nero, or visiting art galleries across Massachusetts, he harnesses his creativity everywhere, including from other poems.
Henry visited the high school’s Craft of Writing class on Jan. 8 in Rm. 371. During his PTO-sponsored visit, Henry shared some examples of Golden Shovel poetry. In a Golden Shovel poem, the last word of each line can be strung together to form a line from an existing piece. Additionally, he spoke about his work, creative process and inspiration and how he encourages students to harness their own creativity wherever they see fit…
My hybrid/experimental piece "to obtain a submission waiver for Black authors" was published in Issue 1.5 of Behemoth Magazine.
Many years ago, when I started sending my work into the world, I came across The Pedestal Magazine. It became my white whale, the place I kept sending work to, and being rejected.
As my writing improved, I received personalized rejections, making it clear that they were taking my work seriously. Then the personalized rejections turned into “you were among the finalists,” but still didn’t make it into the pages.
During this time, the published wonderful reviews of both the Colored page and The Third Renunciation
After 25 years, Pedestal has published their last issue, and my poem “when asked if, as a veteran teacher, I’ve gotten used to it” has been included in its pages.
“I started carrying a knife in my junior year of high school. It was around the same time a big brother figure lent me a copy of the novel Vertical Run. The plot: a business executive named David Elliot walks into his office one morning, and his boss aims a gun at his head. He survives the encounter, but a band of ruthless mercenaries shows up attempting to put a bullet or 12 in his back. Dave, a Vietnam vet, has no idea why everyone wants him dead, but he’s more focused on making it out of the high-rise alive than solving the mystery. It was a great read and became one of the handful of books I’ve voluntarily read more than once. While the prose isn't Nobel Prize worthy, it did contain a scene that spoke to something in my anxious mind—a flashback wherein Dave’s unit receives advice from “the Black Mamba,” a colonel they served under. When I later bought my own copy, I dog-eared the page, highlighted the quote, and went about memorizing it.
And what do logic and reason tell us, gentlemen? What they tell us is this: when someone shoots at you, the only rational response is to — with dispassion and dispatch — render that enemy incapable of shooting at you again. There is, gentlemen, no reasonable alternative to this course of action.
It became a mantra, one of the theme songs of my life, constantly playing in the back of my head.”
My creative nonfiction piece “Protection” is a tour of Boston Commons and the Public Gardens and how to appropriately wield a knife in a public setting. It has been published in the latest issue of Portrait of New England.
Click on the link on the below. “Protection” begins on page 33.
I took a long, wandering walk in Gloucester this summer and stumbled upon an old haunt and old memories. I started writing a poem. It turned into…something. A long poem? A lyric essay? A hybrid piece? I’m not really sure. Also not sure what to do with its content.
Regardless, “Gloucester Harbor | 78” now appears in the latest issue of Nixes Mate Review.
