PW Covington

Our editors are pleased to spotlight PW Covington, a regular contributor, friend, and family of the Windward Review and the People’s Poetry Festival: a Beat warrior for the people, a Water Protector at Standing Rock, a long-time activist for immigrant rights, often volunteering his time on the U.S. and Mexico border; a veteran and advocate for veterans’ health, an ally with the work of justice reform for indigenous peoples, people of color, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized peoples; an artist who was an invited guest to Havana, Cuba, with a special U.S. envoy of poets and writers at the 21st Festival de Poesia Internacional, 2017, and much more; thank you for fighting the good fight, PW, committing poetry on the way and back. Read some of his beat-heart work here on the spotlight, and order his gorgeous lyric embrace of the road, with his original photos along Historic Route 66 between The Motor Hotels of Central Avenue. And pick up his latest, hot off the international awards scene for LGBTQ fiction, North Beach and Other Stories; see below.

The Count

When did you stop following the death count online?
After 5 thousand? After 20?
Are you still clicking ‘refresh’, are you still keeping score?

The mathematics of carnage
Greater than
Less than

Division, long-form
Exponential grief
There are no rational numbers

Boogie Fights

Lace up your purse and let’s go
Twist and tread to the radio

Mind your boundaries
As you tear down walls

Retrogrades and ascendancies
are more than anything else
matters of perspective
and interpretation

This is not the time to stop dancing