Given Q Davis

Missed the due date? Due date for the 1st issue extended to Wednesday 10/1! Yanno, the times are timing - and we all deserve grace. If you have questions or would like support with completing the form, hit up my DMs. 💕 [NOTE: Any Black Trans folks with a connection to PDX are invited to submit work.] I will also be holding an event at IFCC on Saturday 10/18 and inviting a handful of poets who have submitted pieces to the anthology to read their work. This is a compensated opportunity. ...And, yeah. You read that right. First. 😁

I BELIEVE IN YOUUUUUU!!! Congrats on making it this far. You're so close - you can do it!! 19) Archaeological materials, according to Marija Gimbutas, are not mute. They have voices & stories. Your own past is not mute either; you can dig up artifacts, voices, stories. What stories do you create & move forward with? Remember that stories are made things, they can be unmade & remade. Go back into your past & dig up an artifact from your past. Detach it from its prior meanings. Change its history. Give it a new story or myth. How might it become a totem or relic or artifact of intense new meaning? 20) What is something you’ve forgotten that you would like to remember? If you could remember it fully and vividly, would you want to? If so, what would it feel like? Is there a trail of breadcrumbs or a bright star that could to guide you back to this person/place/thing/idea/ emotion/sensation/wisdom/etc? *Prompt courtesy of Given Q Davis @givenqdaviswrites 21) Start a poem with: “If I ruled the world…” *Prompt courtesy of Alone ft. Company @aloneftcompany 22) Think about what supports a creative journey. What is your/my pace? When do you have the space to do this/your creative work? Prompt courtesy of Dey Rivers @artbydey 23) Compare yourself to one childhood toy or a series you watched as a child *Prompt courtesy of Alone ft. Company @aloneftcompany 24) Write a piece about your most audacious dreams coming true from the perspective of someone who loves you dearly. How are you thriving? What do they see? *Prompt courtesy of Given Q Davis @givenqdaviswrites ✨️💕🎉CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!🎉💕✨️ You made it all the way to the end of the 2025 QueerPDXpressions 24-hour Poetry Marathon! Thank you all for writing along with us! All.our gratitude to @corporealwriting for the amazing prompts! ✍️🏾 Remember to tag us to have you work shared in our stories. Hope to hear some of your brand new at the July open mic on 7/7 at @alwaysherebooks with TWO phenomenal featured poets. 💋

YOU'VE GOT THIS!! Is your brain word soup yet? Your heartbeats lyrical? That's one of my favorite sensations. 😌 Ever take a walk around the block while composing a poem? There's no time like the present! Before you start in on the Hour 13-18 prompts, remember to snack, stretch, and hydrate, lovies! 13) You had a dream last night when a part of yourself reached out to you. What was it? Even if you don’t remember your dreams, what is the reaching that you can sense when you close your eyes? 14) Breathe into your body. Let the body lead you. The body knows, remembers, & intuits how to process what we don’t yet have words for. What are some of the ways that we can write around the wound or heartbreak of the experience without naming the thing itself? Make a short list of some of the non-verbal ways that you can convey what has happened (gesture, color, image, metaphor): all of the things that surround & live under the surface of the linear story. Breathe into the body again. Let the breath guide your listening. Make a list of image constellations – short bursts (like photographs) of things that are happening near the “thing” but are not the thing itself. 15) What is the first lie you remember being told? What is the first lie you remember telling? 16) What ghosts have you inherited? What are the silences of your past that linger? What haunts you & what are you haunted by? Choose a form or space to inhabit. This might be a poetic or narrative form, such as a sonnet, sestina, villanelle, fairy tale. Or this might be a physical space, such as a house, room, body. Use this form, space, or container as the backdrop for your haunting. Haunt the form or space itself, as you yourself are haunted. 17) Recently, you thought you saw something, maybe out of the corner of your eye. But when you turned to look again, you realized that your mind was just playing tricks on you. The thing is, your mind doesn’t play tricks on you, at least not in the way you might think. It conjures, recalls, sees patterns. The question is why? The question is, what is it inside of you, a desire or need, that conjured that thing in that moment for you to see? 18 cont'd in comments...

YOU'RE DOING GREAT!! Ready for more prompts? Here's another @corporealwriting prompt rock block for Hours 7-12! If you post your poems, remember to tag us so we can show off your work in stories 🌟 7) Be reborn as dirt, as water, as cloud, as worm, as lava, as fungus, as whalebone. What is the language you are reborn with each time? Where do the words live? And what happens to the words when you die? 8) What is the feeling of heartbreak? Of powerlessness? Of power? What is the story of pain? What is the story of anger? Rage? Despair? Hunger? Satisfaction? Desolation? Friendship? Loneliness? What is the story of being alone? Of being hollow? Full? Broken? Of satiety? Gash(ed)/ing? Victim? Survivor? Perpetrator? Incarceration? Freedom? 9) Lift up your hand and close it into a loose fist. In your hand you are holding a word. This word has the power to heal, to nourish, to discord yourself from your toxic attachments. The word feels warm but perhaps a little itchy, like wool. It feels light, like an eagle’s feather, but is sturdy and robust. What is the word? Use it in a sentence that feels familiar. Then, use it in a way in which it has never been used before. 10) Tell the story of an animal who is an artist. 11) In what story have you been the villain? That is, in someone else’s story, how have you played the villain? Whether or not that was your intention, and whether or not you thought you were doing the right thing. 12) Pretend your body holds an entire internal landscape. Describe the landscape. What do you notice? Go look for something. Unbury something you have buried. Then bury something you need to bury.

As quoth the Purple One themself, OK, LET'S GOOOOO!!! NOTE: Full list of prompts in bio. Some of these prompts are deeply introspective. If you're not feeling one, check out the 2023 Poetry Marathon prompt list. Let the prompts inspire you to write in any direction you desire. ❤️ 1) Imagine, if you will, a magical element, a brilliant piece of technology, a deity, a sprite, or a power of some sort that would make you write in a way that is satisfying to you. Maybe even a way you would be proud of. What is this (possibly) elusive thing? Bring it into your body. Where would it go? What would you do with it? What would it do with you? 2) Write about a place in which you feel most uncomfortable or uninterested. Perhaps the post office, hospital, waiting room, locker room, or elevator. When you think about his space, where does it live in your body? Where does the discomfort live in your body? Where does the discomfort or mundanity hit you? 3) Octopuses are master camouflage. Some can even change their skin to match an environment in anticipation of an environment they see ahead. What is a time where you camouflaged yourself in anticipation of an event or environment? What did that camouflage look like? What did the environment look like? 4) Think about an object you’d love to paint. As a writer, show us what that painting will look like. How does that object connect to your body? Where do its most resonant traits breathe within your body? How does that part of your body connect with the rest of the world? 5) The ocean called your name but it wasn’t what you remember being called, or, it wasn’t the name that you go by now. What is the name that the ocean called? 6) The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. (Audre Lorde) Make a list of 5 things that “turn you on.” Then make lists of 5 smells or tastes, 5 memories, 5 states of being, 5 body parts you feel eroticism in. Pick one thing from each list and put them in a new list. Write from that. You might write in fragments or a continuous thread. Allow for the writing to naturally link with the body part being the carrier of threads.

GET READY for our virtual asynchronous, virtual 24-hour Poetry Marathon!! I've been sitting on this for far too long, and I'm excited to share it with you! This post has deets to help you plan for your marathon. Are you a laptop poet or a paper & pen person? Do you want to do the whole marathon in a day or a poem a day? Go at the speed that works best for you! I'll start putting prompts up tomorrow. They'll be here for you when you're ready. 💕 Make sure to get your meal plan and hydration game on point before you dive in. Here's my suggested list of goodies: *Pot of coffee *Juice *Black or green tea *Lots of water *Fruit *Peanut butter *Cheese *Crackers *All the chips *Meals at the ready (a huge pot of something works well, too) *Bread for toast *Quick sandwich-able things! *Chocolate *Did I mention chips? Yes, all of them. Many thanks to @corporealwriting for donating a PORTALS writing prompt deck for the cause! I hope I get to hear some of your marathon poems at the next open mic on 7/17 at @alwaysherebooks ✨️

Hold on, friends. 💕 . . . Well, friends...we're in a pickle, aren't we? We're exhausted, and there's much to be done. And, our spoon supply is low. Know this. As it is, it may seem that they have the upper hand. They have overrun governmental structures, and their rhetoric is blaring. After the disorientation and isolation of the ongoing pandemic, the rise of the BLM movement, the devastation of Palestine and surrounding countries, the slog of ineffective bureaucracy and neoliberalism, the warmongering of money-hungry tyrants, refusal to demand a ceasefire, the destruction of DEI, the abandonment of trans folks as human, and the vicious charge to detain undocumented folks...The list of horrors goes on... They are making a mockery of equality, basic respect for life, and human kindness...of course, we're tired. Exhaustion is worn on faces the world over. I'm exhausted, too. Yet, somehow...even in the face of all of this, I have the fire of hope burning fiercely inside me. I'm not delusional. This is ABSOLUTELY a toxic dumpster fire hellscape. And we will surely continue to be on the receiving end of terrible news. I do, however, feel deeply in my bones that there are more of us than there are of them. The structures that we've come to know are crumbling. Each of us, in small ways - miniscule ways - can play a part in ensuring that it falls. Our work is within our networks and expanding them to create new, needed structures of support and mutual aid within our communities. Like spiders sitting at the edges of the web, allowing the vibrations to guide us where we need to go. When you feel up to it, do what you can to widen your connections with those you trust. Trust your intuition on this. Each of us has skills and perspectives that we can put to use like no one else can. Ask: how would it be possible for those talents to serve you and others now? Ask: how would it be possible to encourage others to do the same? And, it is possible. We all need your magic. And we need each other. And above all else, don't lose your heart in the face of whatever may come to pass. Find beauty. Find joy. Find kindness wherever you can. Even in the smallest things.

Thoughts for the fraught 💕 Text: Well, that happened.. I'm Black, queer, trans, and nearly 40 in America. Am I anxious about what may come to pass? Hell yeah. But I refuse to give up my hope, personal power, and ability to respond. Discrimination is not new to me. And neither is the knowledge that I come from a legacy of intersectional resistance. Feel your feelings they are absolutely valid. But don't stay in that shock and grief forever. Racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc have been around. Simply more covert and less vocal. We have also been around with more or ess attention on us and more or less access to care. There are so many previous movements that have been able to provide for each other within community. Now is the time to look around you and identify who is in your personal support network. Now is the time for checking in on our sisters & niblings. Don't underestimate your power. Don't underestimate our collective will to live and thrive. Don't you dare say your goodbyes yet. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to speak briefly with Kathleen Saadat, an elder Black queer activist who is largely responsible for starting the first Portland Pride. At the end of our conversation, she said, "Now it's your turn. Those words are both a blessing and a harsh reality check. I take those words to heart. They are particularly precious to me because we lost many of our elders to the AIDS crisis. I was only a child and didn't experience the horrors or rampant abandonment and persecution experienced [edit: at the hands of] the political forces that be firsthand. Those of us who are *sardonic smirk* "geriatric millennials" are tasked with showing up how we are able with what we have to give our community/ies. Please remember: that can look so many ways. For some, it may be throwing their efforts behind political organizations. For others, that may be checking in on your friends to make sure they're eating. Think about your skills, talents, and networks. What can you do with them? How would it be possible to create change, connection, and the joy that will keep us going? Going into this bleak moment fueled only by rage will deplete us. This is a marathon..

Reclining for a brief spell after reading tarot as a mer-queer for Day 2 of SPACE: Neptune. The show was such a treat and the cast brought it so hard. Thanks to everyone who stopped by my oceanic oasis and trusted me to dive into their psychic goo. 🌊 I've read cards since the mid-aughts and I gotta say, it's better down where it's wetter. Over the years, I've sat with many a queer-ent and felt quite a number who hold hesitation around peeking beyond the veil and fear that they might not like what they hear. (FYI, I think both the dreaded Death & Tower cards are pretty rad.) Worst case scenario, someone sits down with fierce skepticism and the intention to somehow prove that tarot is all hocus pocus. (If that's you - I see you. Stop it.) In mer-mode, I've yet to experience any of that in the slightest. Tonight was my 3rd time and I-be dound that the fun & novelty have a way of dispelling that doubt and encourages a level of openness that is simply a joy to witness. It really allows me to make the kind of deep connections while reading that bring me so much joy and makes the esoteric spelunking so easeful. Huge thanks to @maxandmarspresent for giving me the space to take my tail for another whirl and for consistently curating intentional drag spaces that center your love of community and the Universe we inhabit together. It is seen, felt, and ripples through us all. Thanks to @twinkjoy for helping this merdude get his setup from here, there, and back again. 💖 And...if anyone is in need of a mystical merperson, hmu. 🧜🏾‍♂️

Nervous system regulation

Make a wish, babies 💕✨️

🏳️‍⚧️👋🏽Trans being visible, here👋🏽🏳️‍⚧️ It has been 20 years since I began serially coming out--from bi to lesbian to queer to "I'm tired and can't anymore" to nonbinary transmasc. The Tour de Alphabet, if you will. [I use the word "egg" to describe the part of my timeline in this life spent as one iteration of myself, not yet aware that there would be subsequent iterations. Not everyone likes that word. That is the meaning I use it with. It's cute for me, so 🥚] 🐣 As much as each of those paradigm shifting, egg-cracking moments rocked my world, I am thankful to have found myself on something more like a moving spiral staircase, inching ever closer to my most expansive self. The version that can hold all of me. 🌱 I'm in love with the concept of "always already"--that what we are to become is already in the process of becoming; that deep down, the seed knows the tree it will be. It always astounds me how the magic of always already-ess unfurls across a life. 🥚 I didn’t understand I was trans until 2021. In one sweeping moment of "duh," I saw the trail I'd left myself to find. The one pointing me just where I was always already headed. 🥚 I saw how broadly I smiled in photos from drag balls and dyke bars from 2003 up. I remembered the lengths (in the ace bandage times) I went to bind my chest. And I remembered how much I loved every second of how my gender felt. How I never wanted those nights to end. I couldn't yet connect that joy to what it might be like to be myself. 🤴🏾 Drag and gender exploration run concurrent for me. An always already. I didn't actually start doing drag until 2021. And less than 2 years of performing, it has allowed me the space I needed to keep playing with and embodying so many fractals and modes of myself. I am flush with a brilliant, creative trans community, in👏🏾spir👏🏾a👏🏾tion👏🏾 for days, support, and warmth. One of the biggest gifts drag has given me is a joyful way to inhabit my changing body in my continued navigations of the 4D scatterplot that is gender and stages where I can share that with others. I'm thankful to the eggs I've been and their work of hatching. #transvisability #blackdragking