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Chen Chen

@chenchenwrites.bsky.social

5.2K followers 820 following 900 posts

traveling poet • phd in english • 2 books with @boa-editions.bsky.social • latest chapbook @ghostcitypress.bsky.social • faculty at new england college • abolish the police & free palestine • https://www.chenchenwrites.com/the-latest

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · Nov 22

hello, good evening, my name
is chen chen, i’m a poet, and you may know me from such poems as this, “i love you to the moon &”

i love you to the moon &

not back, let’s not come back, let’s go by the speed of
queer zest & stay up
there & get ourselves a little
moon cottage (so pretty), then start a moon garden

with lots of moon veggies (so healthy), i mean
i was already moonlighting
as an online moonologist
most weekends, so this is the immensely

logical next step, are you
packing your bags yet, don’t forget your
sailor moon jean jacket, let’s wear
our sailor moon jean jackets while twirling in that lighter,

queerer moon gravity, let’s love each other
(so good) on the moon, let’s love
the moon
on the moon

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 1d

keep your wonder alive, keep your aliveness alive

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 2d

the great adventure of living while very very gay

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 3d

love a crisp fall day with a high of 82°

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 5d

When someone dies, we go searching for poetry.

But I want elegies while I’m still alive... I want ballads, I want ugly, grating sounds, I want repetition, I want white space... and even center-aligned italicized poems that rhyme, and most of all — feelings.

—Jenny Zhang

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 9d

something that can be so tough is Everything

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 11d

from Rick Barot’s gorgeous new chapbook, The Emperor of the Cut Sleeve, out now from Sixth Finch: sixthfinch.com/store.html

Sixth Finch Books

sixthfinch.com

Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 11d

Write into the honey.

...

Write into the rain.

—Rick Barot

Write into the smudge in the painting where the pink lays into the green. Write into the plush of his lower lip. Write into the light pouring from the oculus above the baroque courtyard. Write into the whippoorwill that sings each morning, bringing in the morning. The two old balloons caught in the branch outside the fourth-floor window. The sky and its gray flannel suit. Write into the person practicing scales but practicing them out of order. Write into the honey. The story he told about the hierarchies of honeybees. The story he told about the man mummified in honey. Write into his white hands. Write into the smell of pomade. Write into the smell of August, a thug of a smell. Write into each trivial but astonishing trick, like roller-skating backwards or snipping thread with your teeth. Write into the rain. Write into its fall, knowing that the only god you can know is gravity.

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 13d

i am meant to be cute at cute cafes, like that’s my destiny, and too much time away makes me despondent, like it makes me fucking wither

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 13d

eavesdropping on the homosexuals as well as the bisexuals: a craft essay in the form of community gossip

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Reposted by Chen Chen

Community Building Art Works @missionbelonging.bsky.social · 13d

🪶 ✨ Join us Thurs, 10/23 @ 7 PM ET on Zoom for a workshop with @chenchenwrites.bsky.social! We'll explore a poetry form using only the letters in your name. Discover how this constraint boosts creativity through examples and hands-on creation. 🎟️ More & Register: chenchen2025.eventbrite.com?aff=Bsky

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 15d

thinking about luke and lorelai

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 15d

no i love the temperature love it i just need the sun to keep setting at 8:00pm thanks

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 17d

Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language.

—Lucille Clifton

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Reposted by Chen Chen

BOA Editions @boa-editions.bsky.social · 22d

📣 NEW RELEASE ALERT! 📣 Boa Editions is thrilled to announce that Aracelis Girmay's new collection of poetry GREEN OF ALL HEADS is out now! We have signed paperbacks and hardcovers for sale on our store in limited supply! Purchase yourself a copy today at boaeditions.org. Spread the word🍃

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 23d

p.s. i am very much working on my third book of poems 🥸

Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 23d

thanks to Jeff for taking this pic (once i remembered it was my book bday on the next day lol)

thank you to everyone who’s supported this book in one way or another 🫶

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Chen Chen @chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 23d

thank you @boa-editions.bsky.social & to @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social for publishing the UK edition (see my IG for more pics)

thank you Vincent Chong (crystalmonkeycalligraphy on IG) for the US cover art. & to Muriel Leung (murmurshewrote on IG) for the UK cover art