Older Bylines
The title of Tongo Eisen-Martin’s collection Blood on the Fog is a spring-loaded phrase that moves from concrete image to political and poetic association with all the force of a jack-in-the-box. And what more, really, could you ask of your poet laureate?
Clearly, I was moved by the collection. I got the assignment from Datebook, the now-defunct books section of the %Chronicle.5 At the time, I was reviewing poetry and memoir regularly for the paper, an honor I was astounded to have been given. (In reality, of course, people weren’t exactly banging down any doors to review poetry and memoir, especially for $250 a pop.) After the piece was published, Eisen-Martin messaged me directly. He thanked me and wrote that I “really got” what he did and that it felt good to be seen. It was one of the best responses to a piece I’ve ever received. Read the piece here.
