Migrant Psalms

"['OTM'] transcends the list poem so far as to create its own unique form. This is the form of all of Darrel Alejandro Holnes’s work. The conclusion of his poem 'Poder' describes and defines this original form: 'moving us farther and farther / away from the world being just rhetoric, / into the structure of its design . . . / knowing this too is poetry.' Reader, this is poetry." —Ed Roberson, from the introduction

"Darrel Alejandro Holnes captures beautifully the deep investment in hope (and in the divine) that immigrants must make, and the deeper investment in themselves that fuels their hope. And with vibrant images, compelling narratives, and witty and affective turns of phrase, he sings the ambivalence of arrival and the shifting blues of self-making. Migrant Psalms is a wise and soulful debut, a gem of a book." —Khaled Mattawa, author of Fugitive Atlas: Poems

“Darrel Alejandro Holnes sings with holy irreverence. His lyricism transforms the dashed pottery of a Jeremiah into the broken windows that show us a wilder world is still possible. These are love poems to the present—earnest, earthy, unpredictable. His migrant tongue shows us why we need to read in the presence of all the languages of the world. Here is a voice that has arrived, just in time for these times.” —Tsitsi Jaji, author of Mother Tongues: Poems (Northwestern University Press, 2020)