“This collection understands love as labor.
As spellwork. As resistance.
It understands motherhood—
not only biological, but communal, ancestral, chosen—
as a site of divine power.“
It is this tenderness that permeates Phelps’s ode to his mother, this nuance that offers the context that’s needed to see her full facet, from childhood to grown. Only from within this deep well of empathy is he able to paint whole cloth a picture of the woman who raised him; so wrapped up he’s been in his role as her son. The Holy Ghost Lives In Her Laugh tucks this cherished in her own surroundings and stands back to marvel; at the strength of Black women, the power of mothers, and the stubborn determination of one little girl. Phelps arrives back here, still kneeling, still reverent, eyes fixed on the hands that built him a childhood from nothing, with no example; the lips that sing god’s love, laugh her love—unwavering still.
Release Date: April 30
ISBN: 978-1-964932-30-9
100 pages
Advance Praise for The Holy Ghost Lives In Her Face:
Dr. Darius Phelps' new collection The Holy Ghost Lives in Her Laugh is a love letter to Black women. It is all ode & reverence, all heart & wisdom. This work holds within its pages a blueprint for survival; what to do when the wilderness (was) kinder / than the dinner table and how to endure when you've inherited the ache. So many moments in this work made me tremble with recognition, from its dedication page all the way to the last line. Phelps is tender & miraculous in his insistence of love, of worship. Reminding us that the sun rises each morning stupid and golden /and forgiving but we must rise alongside it too. When he writes: I didn't always have language for the way love survives violence that is the beginning & that beginning is balm.
-Yesenia Montilla,
Author of The Pink Box & Muse Found in a Colonized Body
In The Holy Ghost Lives in Her Laugh, Darius Phelps crafts a scripture of daily grace, of frosted cheerios and slow-boiling water. In these poems, a son raises himself into disciplehood, brings himself to meet the world through the hands and history of a mother: "i learned to pray/by watching her work." Phelps' second collection of poems affirms what I have long believed: that the act of writing to and toward the ones we love may indeed help us to love them better. These are poems of great attention, poems that trace the swelling of knuckles against rings. Poems that call us back from the brink. That call to us from miles away to share a few moments of night, to wait with us for the tea to cool. What a blessing to be on the other end of the line-listen closely.
-Andrew Chi Keong Yim,
Author of The Ninth Island
And much like a wound dressed in pearls, Darius Phelps' tender sophomore return, The Holy Ghost That Lives In Her Laugh rendered itself as both ode and elegy. A poetry collection that, with grace, candor, and an unflinching eye towards personal history, this book stand at the intimate intersections of family, faith, and violence. Survival is a mother running against the cracked sidewalk. The past, and its many mouths, are its own god. Phelps draws memory out as broad sword, cleaving through his own a thousand scriptures to make lush music. From first verse to final, the readers will remember: 'Not stars, / but streetlights she imagined / lighting her own way out'."
-I.S. Jones,
Author of Bloodmercy and Spells of My Name
Dr. Darius Phelps' poems are both a commemoration and a meditation, a praise and a wail. One poem exemplifies this dichotomy perfectly: "They said God was love, / but I only met Him in echoes. // The devil, though/ he pulled up a chair." Crafted from a mother's sacrifice and forged by longing, Phelps weaves biblical allusions to create a new cosmology, drawing many parallels between the speaker and their mother to make sense of origin and selfhood. We are asked to bear witness to the testimonies within these verses that show us the speaker's indisputable truth: "I've inherited the ache."
-Jeddie Sophronius,
Author of Interrogation Records
“This collection understands love as labor.
As spellwork. As resistance.
It understands motherhood—
not only biological, but communal, ancestral, chosen—
as a site of divine power.“
It is this tenderness that permeates Phelps’s ode to his mother, this nuance that offers the context that’s needed to see her full facet, from childhood to grown. Only from within this deep well of empathy is he able to paint whole cloth a picture of the woman who raised him; so wrapped up he’s been in his role as her son. The Holy Ghost Lives In Her Laugh tucks this cherished in her own surroundings and stands back to marvel; at the strength of Black women, the power of mothers, and the stubborn determination of one little girl. Phelps arrives back here, still kneeling, still reverent, eyes fixed on the hands that built him a childhood from nothing, with no example; the lips that sing god’s love, laugh her love—unwavering still.
Release Date: April 30
ISBN: 978-1-964932-30-9
100 pages
Advance Praise for The Holy Ghost Lives In Her Face:
Dr. Darius Phelps' new collection The Holy Ghost Lives in Her Laugh is a love letter to Black women. It is all ode & reverence, all heart & wisdom. This work holds within its pages a blueprint for survival; what to do when the wilderness (was) kinder / than the dinner table and how to endure when you've inherited the ache. So many moments in this work made me tremble with recognition, from its dedication page all the way to the last line. Phelps is tender & miraculous in his insistence of love, of worship. Reminding us that the sun rises each morning stupid and golden /and forgiving but we must rise alongside it too. When he writes: I didn't always have language for the way love survives violence that is the beginning & that beginning is balm.
-Yesenia Montilla,
Author of The Pink Box & Muse Found in a Colonized Body
In The Holy Ghost Lives in Her Laugh, Darius Phelps crafts a scripture of daily grace, of frosted cheerios and slow-boiling water. In these poems, a son raises himself into disciplehood, brings himself to meet the world through the hands and history of a mother: "i learned to pray/by watching her work." Phelps' second collection of poems affirms what I have long believed: that the act of writing to and toward the ones we love may indeed help us to love them better. These are poems of great attention, poems that trace the swelling of knuckles against rings. Poems that call us back from the brink. That call to us from miles away to share a few moments of night, to wait with us for the tea to cool. What a blessing to be on the other end of the line-listen closely.
-Andrew Chi Keong Yim,
Author of The Ninth Island
And much like a wound dressed in pearls, Darius Phelps' tender sophomore return, The Holy Ghost That Lives In Her Laugh rendered itself as both ode and elegy. A poetry collection that, with grace, candor, and an unflinching eye towards personal history, this book stand at the intimate intersections of family, faith, and violence. Survival is a mother running against the cracked sidewalk. The past, and its many mouths, are its own god. Phelps draws memory out as broad sword, cleaving through his own a thousand scriptures to make lush music. From first verse to final, the readers will remember: 'Not stars, / but streetlights she imagined / lighting her own way out'."
-I.S. Jones,
Author of Bloodmercy and Spells of My Name
Dr. Darius Phelps' poems are both a commemoration and a meditation, a praise and a wail. One poem exemplifies this dichotomy perfectly: "They said God was love, / but I only met Him in echoes. // The devil, though/ he pulled up a chair." Crafted from a mother's sacrifice and forged by longing, Phelps weaves biblical allusions to create a new cosmology, drawing many parallels between the speaker and their mother to make sense of origin and selfhood. We are asked to bear witness to the testimonies within these verses that show us the speaker's indisputable truth: "I've inherited the ache."
-Jeddie Sophronius,
Author of Interrogation Records
